


(Love)letters  [[continuing very soon]]

by EndlessRain12



Category: Bandom, Gerard Way and the Hormones, My Chemical Romance, frnkiero andthe cellabration
Genre: AU, Frerard, M/M, highschool
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-23
Updated: 2016-01-03
Packaged: 2018-05-02 23:46:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 23,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5268449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EndlessRain12/pseuds/EndlessRain12
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gerard, a mute and basically a loner, thinks he will finally get the opportunity to make a friend who doesn't judge him for not speaking when his English teacher announces a project where the kids have to write to kids from another school. But when Gerard is linked to a complete and utter asshole his plan doesn't seem to work out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

2:30pm, only 20 minutes until Gerard would be released from this horribly dreadful place so he could go home and just lay in bed for the rest of the day. Because honestly, that was the only thing he was really looking forward to today. It was only the second week of his senior year and he already got beaten up twice. Not because of his looks, not because of his sexuality, but because he didn't talk. Gerard was a mute, and to a lot of ignorant people, being a mute seemed like a choice. Sadly, this included some of the teachers. 

This was 'one of those' classes, Gerard sat in the front with his little whiteboard and a marker so that he could answer the teacher's questions. But unfortunately he didn't have Mrs. Will for English anymore. The sweetest teacher ever was transferred to a much better school where they needed her help. Instead he got Mrs. Allen this year, and it's not that she's 'mean' or 'a bad teacher' she's just kind of uninformed and really loud and maybe overly excited. Every time she would slightly raise her voice, Gerard would jump, which, of course, caused all the kids to laugh at him.

Another reason that he really disliked this class was that the only thing they had done since school started was practicing college essays because, apparently, these dipshits still did not know how to write a proper essay after all these years.

And that's exactly what they were doing right now, cleaning up each others essays and correcting the spelling and grammar mistakes. Gerard got stuck with Bert's essay and he still was not sure where to start. It seemed like Bert didn't write one sentence without flaws.

"Okay class, finish that up please, i have an important announcement to make"

Gerard didn't even panic about not finishing, he just passed Bert his essay back without making eye contact and took his own. He immediately saw that Bert didn't correct anything and instead wrote some terribly bad, misspelled insults on his essay. And honestly, he was fine with that.

"Eyes up here everyone." Mrs. Allen said, "I've been making some phone calls over the summer with a teacher from another school and we both got permission to let our senior classes do something fun in their last year of high school. You guys will start writing letters next class and i'll make sure that they will get delivered to the other school. Every boy will be linked to a girl and vice versa. You will get graded on it but don't look at this like it's an assignment, think of it as an opportunity to meet new people and making a new friend!"

A lot of people were rolling their eyes and letting out sighs at this announcement but Gerard was actually really excited about this. He kept thinking about what he should write in his letter tomorrow while making his way home, and he was way too busy to notice Bert and his crew of idiots creeping up on him until he got pushed to the ground.

Gerard didn't even have time to think before he felt someone kick him right in the stomach. While he was gasping to get air Bert leaned over him.

"You were supposed to correct my homework for me, why didn't you?"

Gerard was still in too much of a shock to do anything. So he got two more kicks, one in is arm and one in his ribs.

"Answer me! Is your writing as bad as your talking, Gee?"

Gerard absolutely HATED it when they called him by the nickname that his brother gave him. He shook his head.

"Guess you're still doing my homework then, don't forget Gee, it's due tomorrow"

He heard Bert opening his backpack, throwing some stuff across the streets and closing it again. Guess he put his essay somewhere in there.

He waited for about 10 minutes, until he was sure they all walked off, and got up. He immediately grabbed his ribs, that's gonna be a problem in gym class tomorrow. He grabbed all his stuff off the floor and quickly put it back in his backpack, hoping no one saw what had just happened.

When he got home he ran straight to his room, better to get Bert's homework done sooner than later.

He had just started on correcting the last paragraph when there was a knock on his basement door.

He quickly tried to find a place to hide the essay. If his mom ever found out that he was doing this she would try to 'help' him again. And he knows that she means well but she can't do anything to help him in school.

The door opened, and luckily it was his brother, Mikey. Gerard let out a sigh and grabbed the essay again to finish it.

"Bert again?" Mikey asked, he knew way too well what happened to his brother at school. But he was only a sophomore and he was as skinny as a toothpick so the only thing he could do about this was calm his brother down and help him to hide the bruises from their parents.

Mikey went back upstairs to get some coffee for both of them while Gerard finished the essay. There was no way Mikey could help with that since Gerard is like an English literature God.

By the time Mikey came down, Gerard was done and was doodling on a piece of scratch paper he found. His brother handed him the cup of coffee and Gerard happily took it from him. Mikey put on Nimrod by Green Day so their parents wouldn't hear him talk. And then he waited for Gerard to finish his coffee before asking him.

"How bad is it this time, Gee?" Mikey asked him, Gerard looked up at him and took his hoodie off, immediately revealing an already purple bruise on his arm. It wasn't too big but it's was a really dark purple color. Gerard made a guilty face, as if saying "I'm sorry" to his brother, and Mikey picked that up straight away.

"It's not your fault Gee, don't ever think it is. These guys chose to beat you up, nothing you could do. It's not your fault, okay?"

Gerard nodded his head but Mikey knew he still didn't believe him.

"That's not all, is it?" Mikey asked him.

Gerard shook his head 'no' and took his shirt off, he looked in the mirror that covered his whole closed and saw that the first kick hadn't done too much damage at all. You could barely see anything. But his ribs, they were not even purple anymore, they were black. Gerard saw Mikey's pitiful face and felt even worse. He let his brother down once again.

Mikey tried to touch it but Gerard flinched so he pulled back rapidly, scared that he had hurt him even more. Gerard shook his head and wrote on the piece of scratch paper "no pain, just cold"

So Mikey slowly tried to touch it again and softly pushed in some places, making sure none of the ribs were actually broken and when Gerard let him know that it didn't hurt too much he was satisfied and let him put his shirt back on.

"We gotta find a way to hide that one, Gee" Mikey told him. Gerard thought for a bit before he held up his finger telling Mikey to wait for a bit, and then walked to his closed. Gerard opened all the drawers and threw some stuff out until he found what he was looking for. He proudly held up a black long-sleeve shirt.

"Guess that'll do" Mikey smiled proudly at his brother.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, Gerard woke up at 4, both anxious for gym class and excited for English. He knew that Bert was not going to be in his gym class (because he was way too cool do sports) but Quinn and Jeph or 'Bert's little slaves' as Gerard called them, were going to be there. And there was a 90% chance that they would give him a hard time.

 

Gerard decided to just push trough this day and think about the letters, what was he even going to write to this girl? He seriously hoped that they would at least have the same music taste because he didn't know what else they would be able to talk about.

 

Eventually he fell asleep again and woke up to his alarm clock beeping at him at 6am. He sighed, grabbed some black skinny jeans and the shirt that he picked out yesterday off the ground and jumped into the shower. He hissed at the hot water when it ran over his bruises, it got worse overnight. Gerard decided not to torture himself for too long and got out after barely 5 minutes. He quickly changed into his clothes, grabbed his bag and ran upstairs where he found Mikey, still half asleep, sipping from his coffee cup.

 

When Gerard entered the kitchen, Mikey looked up at him "I made coffee" he said, pointing to the half empty coffee pot on the counter. Gerard's eyes widen at that, he NEEDED coffee and especially right now. After drinking two cups he grabbed two apples, one for on the way and one for later and left early.

 

Before he even left the block, Mikey caught up with him and told him that he didn't want Gerard to walk alone anymore since that would increase the possibility of him getting beaten up again. Gerard went in for a hug because it was a really nice gesture from his brother but when his brother returned the favor, Gerard almost collapsed in pain.

 

"Gerard, if you're not feeling better by tomorrow, i'm gonna make you go to the doctors" Mikey said while making sure his brother was okay. Gerard bowed his head down because he knew that that was probably the right thing to do.

 

Gerard's first few classes weren't too hard but then they weren't too entertaining either. He sat by Mikey and a few of Mikey's friends during lunch. He never sat with his brother before but Mikey insisted because he was really worried about Gerard's condition. Mikey's friends were actually really cool, kind of annoying and loud but really cool. Gerard was enjoying the conversation until something hit the back of his head. When he turned around he saw that it was half of a PB&J sandwich and he didn't have to guess who threw it.

 

"Hey loser, did you make my homework." Gerard didn't even see Bert, he just took the essay out of his bag as quickly as possible and held it up so Bert could grab it.

 

When Bert left, Mikey's friend Ray took Gerard to the restroom to get the peanut butter out of his hair. Mikey trusted him with this guy so he must be okay, he called Ray the 'hair wizard' since he always knew what to do when any of his friends had a bad hair day. Gerard was actually amused by his hair when he first met the guy, he had a huge fro, but a good one. It looked like he styled every little curl individually before he went to school this morning.

 

Ray put Gerard in front of the sink and pulled some hair supplies out of his bag. He started of with brushing the stuff out of Gerard's hair and covered the smell up with some dry-shampoo and some perfume. When he was done he asked Gerard if he could style his hair since there was still 15 minutes of their lunchtime left. Gerard pulled up his shoulders and made an

'i don't know, if you want to' face. So Ray smiled and happily started on his hair.

 

"So what do you think?" he asked Gerard after he was done. Gerard looked in the mirror for a good minute, his hair was really messed up, but not in the 'i just got out of bed way' it was messed up in a movie-star kind of way. And he really liked it. Gerard grabbed his whiteboard and a green marker from his own bag and wrote down; 'love it, you should be a professional hairstylist' to which Ray laughed. "I'll keep dreaming" he said before he walked off right before the bell rang.

 

While Gerard walked to the Gym he kept thinking about this guy, he was weird but interesting and talented. He would totally ask Mikey if he could ask Ray if he would be interested in doing Gerard's hair like this more often.

 

Gerard entered the boys' locker room way before anyone else. He opened his locker to get his gym clothes out but only found short-sleeved shirts. He couldn't wear a short-sleeved shirt when his arm looked like this so he quickly decided to just tell the teacher that he forgot his gym clothes. He put everything but his whiteboard and marker in his locker and walked to the gym and wrote down for the coach that he had forgotten his gym clothes.

 

Luckily the coach said that it was okay since Gerard never forgot anything, ever. So he could get away with it. During gym, not a lot happened, there was just a lot of running involved and Gerard made sure to avoid Quinn and Jeph, even if it meant that he had to run faster. About 30 minutes before gym class ended, Coach decided that they were gonna play dodge-ball. Normally, Gerard would actually be excited about this, he was good at dodge-ball. This was his thing. But right now he would rather just punch himself in the stomach.

 

Sadly lots of kids knew that Gerard was one of the better dodge-ball players and it didn't surprise him that he was picked second. The teams lined up and when Coach blew his whistle, Gerard did not move, instead he waited for the balls to come his way. When he finally got a hold of one of the balls he just started playing like normal. He hit several people in the first few minutes. But when Jeph purposely hit him in the ribs, Gerard was happy that he could walk off to the sideline. That had hurt him more than it should and he knew that Mikey would make him go to the doctor's tomorrow.

 

Gerard didn't enter the game again and everyone just let him sit on the floor because it honestly looked like the kid was gonna collapse at any second.

 

Gerard had already grabbed his stuff before the bell rang so he could get a good seat in his English class.

 

When he got to English he was the first one and he took the same seat that he took every class. Front row, next to the window. He pulled out a pen and put his whiteboard and marker on his desk.

 

At the start of the class they handed in their essays, Mrs. Allen would grade them and give them back before Friday. Then she handed out some paper for everyone to write their letters on.

 

"The only thing you guys have to do in this letter is talk about yourself and what you're expecting from this project. Don't tell them your last name, where you're from, what you look like or the name of our school. We wanna leave social media out of this. Just your name, interests and expectations,

you can start now. ...oh and,  before i forget, please don't write anything that you know you'll get expelled over."

 

Gerard exactly what he was going to write already so he didn't waste any time.

  
  


_'Dear Someone,_

_My name is Gerard and i'm 17 years old. I live with both of my parents and my little brother. I love music, drawing, reading, writing and playing video games with my brother._

_I really don't know what to expect yet since i don't know you at all. But i am quite excited for this project. The only thing i actually know about you is that you're a girl. I used to have a friend that was a girl but she moved out of state and we lost contact so i guess you're second girl that will be my friend for at least this school year._

_I'm looking forward to reading your letter!_

_\- Gerard'_

  
  


He turned it in to Mrs. Allen and doodled until it was 2:50. He walked straight to Mr. Johnson's physics room where Mikey was already waiting for him. Gerard had promised him during lunch that he would choose for his own safety until the bruises started to fade. Mikey gave him a small "hey" and then they walked straight home.

 

Mikey followed Gerard into his basement and sat down on his bed next to him. "How are your bruises?" Mikey asked him while handing Gerard his whiteboard and a purple marker. Mikey did this when he wanted a long and clear answer. Gerard just gave him a sigh and started writing, he really wanted his brother to stop worrying about him, Mikey was the little one after all so Gerard should be the one looking after him.

 

Gerard handed him the whiteboard after he was done writing 'was feeling okay 'til Jeph threw a dodge-ball at me, still hurting now' was what it said.

 

Mikey made a small nod toward Gerard, telling him to lift his shirt up and Gerard did. The bruise on his stomach was barely there anymore but the one on his ribs had spread and you could even see some veins.

 

"Gee this is not good at all" Mikey told him. Gerard knew and immediately came up with an idea. He grabbed his whiteboard and wrote; 'just tell mom that i fell down the stairs at school and that it really hurts and she will totally believe it'

 

"That would probably work" Mikey said, impressed by how fast his brother came up with this.

 

The boys went upstairs for dinner when their mom called them and when they both finished their lasagna, Mikey addressed the subject.

 

"So mom, you know how much of a klutz Gerard can be right?" He started. Gerard gave him a glare before he even finished the sentence.

 

"Where is this going?" Their mom asked.

 

"So Gerard fell down the stairs at school yesterday and hurt himself pretty bad, he didn't want me to know because he didn't want me to worry about him but it doesn't look good at all and i think he should see a doctor."

 

Both of their parents didn't seem too surprised by the fact that Gerard did something stupid and hurt himself. They had used a lot of excuses to get him through high school.

 

"Gerard sweetie, let me see." his mom said. Gerard walked over to her side of the table and lifted up his shirt.

 

Now that DID actually shock her. "i'll make an appointment for as soon as possible" She said, and got up to get her phone.

 

Mikey and Gerard did the dishes while their dad went to his office to finish some work that he still had to do.

 

When their mom entered the kitchen they both stopped with what they were doing to give her their full attention.

 

"Gerard i made you the soonest appointment and that will be tomorrow 8am, i'll call school and tell them you'll be at the hospital. Promise me you'll call me after you're done at the hospital and promise me you'll try to go to school that day if it's possible."

 

Gerard looked confused, he grabbed a pen and a sticky note that he found on the fridge and wrote; 'do i really have to go alone?'

 

"yeah Gerard, i have scheduled appointments for tomorrow morning, your dad will be in a meeting and your brother has to go to school"

 

Gerard gave her a sigh and pointed to his mouth.

 

"Bring your whiteboard and maybe a notebook, they already know this, Gerard, they're supposed to know"

 

Gerard just nodded and went to bed, not at all looking forward to tomorrow.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heya guys, so i did chapters 1 and 2 today, i'm gonna start on 3 when i wake up tomorrow so that will definitely be up tomorrow. I'm not so sure about chapter 4 though.  
> Let me know what you think of it so far!  
> -Nyxx


	3. Chapter 3

7:55am, Gerard was still sitting in his car, even though he promised his parents and Mikey that he would go see a doctor, he never actually thought about it until this very moment. What if they wanted him to speak? What if they hurt him?

7:57, Gerard took a deep breath, grabbed his whiteboard and put a marker in his jacket-pocket before heading to the waiting room.

When he got in there was a lady at the front desk that stopped him.

"Sir, i need you to check in with us before you enter the waiting room, can i please have your name?"

Gerard, anxiously scribbled his name onto the whiteboard and held it up for her. She looked mildly confused but lucky for him she didn't ask any questions and just told him that he was good to go.

8:05, why are doctors always late? It seemed like Gerard had been sitting here for hours and he was getting more nervous every second.

8:15, "Gerard Way?" Gerard immediately turned his head to the direction his name was coming from. A lady, about 50 years old, was looking for someone to react. "Gerard Way?" she called out another time. Gerard stood up and gave her a small nod once they made eye contact. He shook her hand and she told him to follow her.

They entered this check-up room that was probably her office at the same time because it had all kinds of family photos on the walls. She sat at a small desk with a lamp, a computer and some notebooks and she told Gerard to sit at the other side. According to him she did this so that he couldn't look at what she was writing about him.

"So Gerard, tell me why you're here" She said with a soft smile. Gerard started writing on his whiteboard and handed it over to her once he was done writing. 'i'm a mute so i hope you won't mind it if we do it this way' she read out loud and then looked at him. "Of course i don't honey, if talking is a hard thing for you to do then i won't make you." Even though the problem wasn't that it was 'hard for him' to talk, he was actually unable to get any form of sound out, he still appreciated this lady's patience.

She handed him a notebook so he would have more room to write down his condition and he handed it back to her again. 'fell down stairs at school, bruise on my arm and on my ribs, the on on my ribs looks really bad and hurts like...' he didn't actually want to write the word down but he knew that she would know what he was talking about anyways.

She let Gerard sit on the hospital bed thingy and told him to take off his coat and sweater. At this moment Gerard was grateful that he was wearing a t-shirt as well.

First she looked at his arm and felt it, and asked 'does this hurt' about 20 times. "your arm looks really bruised but it should look fine in about one, maybe two weeks." Gerard nodded at her.

"Okay Gerard, can you now lift your shirt up for me?" Gerard didn't think about it too much, this was the whole reason he was here after all. When the lady saw his ribs she gasped. She slightly touched it and the pain took Gerard by surprise, he didn't remember it hurting this much. He grabbed at his ribs in pain and the lady told him that they had to take some X-Rays.

Gerard was actually happy to hear that because he might not be able to go to school at all today.

After the X-Rays were taken, Gerard was back in the waiting room where he had to stay for an hour and a half. He entertained himself by drawing on his whiteboard and erasing it again and by drinking cheap coffee. After the long wait the lady came back out and called his name. Gerard let out a sigh from relief and went with her.

She told Gerard to sit back down on the chair and grabbed the X-Rays from her desk to show him. "So, it looks like nothing is actually broken, so you should be grateful for that, but it's heavily bruised so i guess you'll have to be really careful. I also wrote you a recipe for some painkillers, so you can get those at the pharmacy by the front desk and i guess you're good to go."

Gerard gave her a nod and shook her hand once again before leaving. He got his painkillers and before he knew it he was back in his car. This was't too bad after all. He looked at the time and noticed it was only 11:15am. His mom had told him to go back to school, but the doctor told him that he had to be careful and if he would go to school now he would have to participate in gym class. So he decided to hang out in his car until lunch time.

When Gerard finally got to school he sneaked in through the back entrance that's normally always locked and waited in a bathroom stall until the bell rang. Then he rushed to the cafeteria and spotted Mikey and quickly sat down next to him. "Gee? What are you doing here? Did you go to the doctor's?" Gerard had already written down the answers to these questions. 'nothing's broken, just bruised, sneaked in through backdoor'. "you sneaked INTO school? you're crazy!", a smaller boy at the same table said.

Gerard had seen him before, this boy was in his gym-class, but he had never actually said anything to Gerard. Gerard just looked confused at him and Mikey, like the mindreader that he is, asked the boy to introduce himself. The boy said his name was Pete and he apologized for never even acknowledging Gerard and told him that he didn't know how to deal with mute people, but then he said that he had realized that Gerard could just be treated like any other person (he probably got that from Mikey) Gerard just gave him a small smile, at least he might have someone to hang with during next gym class.

Lunch was over way too fast, and Gerard was actually really enjoying lunch with his brother and his crazy friends. When Gerard entered Mrs. Allen's room he took his usual spot and waited for the period to start.

"Okay everyone, so i know not a lot of you will be excited about this but i look what i have here!" Gerard's head shot up and Mrs. Allen's hands were filled with envelopes. Gerard actually did get excited about this because this meant that he got to write a letter every other day!

While Mrs. Allen picked out the letters she was explaining "Okay so we let all the other students pick out your letters and reply to them in their own ways, you might get someone you'll like and you might get someone you'll dislike, just remember that this experiment will get graded in both schools so use appropriate language."

Once she had handed out all the letters, Gerard noticed he was missing his but before he could say anything she called him to come up to her desk while the others were reading and writing.

"So Gerard, you have a different kind of letter than the others, the other school ran out of girls so your letter was the one picked by a boy, do you mind? Because i'm sure we will be able to figure something out if you don't like this." Gerard just motioned her to give him the reply to his letter and she gladly did so.

He sat back in his seat and looked at his envelope before opening it, it was definitely a boy who wrote this, no girl in the entire world's handwriting could be this shitty to be honest. Gerard opened the envelope and pulled out a scrunched up piece of paper that was stuffed in the envelope instead of folded. Gerard just ignored that and started to read.

 

_‘Hello Gerard,_

_My name is Frank, i'm 16, and i honestly do not care about your hobbies or family._

_I’m not looking forward to this at all and so i’m not expecting anything, the only reason i’m doing this is for the grade._

_Your emotional background story still makes me wanna throw up and by the way I’M NOT A GIRL._

_Not looking forward to your next letter._

_-Frank’_

This honestly shocked Gerard, this Frank guy must be the least open minded person ever, but Gerard didn’t see this as another guy being an assehole to him. No, he saw this as a challenge, he had to write to this guy for the rest of the school year and he was gonna make him his best friend. It took Gerard three tries to get find the perfect words for his reply to Frank’s letter.

_‘Frank,_

_No need to be mean, it’s not like i knew you were gonna be a guy when i was told you’d be a girl._

_And honestly, who doesn’t like emotional background stories? Are you even human?_

_Do you really think that i’m still one bit excited for English class if i have someone like you to write to?_

_Thanks for ruining this for me,_

_-Gerard.’_

 

Maybe if he acted the same way as Frank did, Frank would open up to him. Gerard put the letter in the envelope that he was given and gave it to Mrs. Allen before he walked out when the bell rang.

He walked straight to Mikey’s physics class again where Mikey was talking to Pete. When they noticed Gerard he gave them a small wave. “Gee, would it be okay with you if Pete would come over to watch a movie with us in your basement?” Mikey was giving him the puppy eyes and Gerard just rolled his eyes at his little brother before giving him a nod.

The walk home was kind of awkward, Pete was only talking to Mikey and didn’t include Gerard in the conversation at all. Gerard didn’t really think anything off it and just kind of went with it while walking home, this was still new to Pete after all.

“You guys go downstairs, i’ll make us some coffee.” Mikey announced. ‘great’ Gerard thought, this were gonna be the most painful 5 minutes of his life. But when he and Pete got downstairs he was proven wrong. “Dude, this room is awesome! Did you do this all on your own?” Pete asked while looking at the horror-themed walls that Gerard spray-painted with Mikey. Gerard quickly grabbed a sticky note from his desk and scribbled his answer on it. ‘Mikey helped’ it said. “i didn’t know that you guys were into art!” Gerard gave him a shy smile, not sure how to respond to this. “Do you guys do anything besides painting?”

At that moment Mikey came down and answered Pete before Gerard could. “Gerard is mainly into drawing and painting and i’m practicing videogame design, if you could call that art, oh and we used to play music together but we stopped whe-” Mikey realized he was getting carried away when Gerard stormed out of the basement. This was not something they were supposed to talk about and especially not when Gerard was there.

“Shouldn’t we run after him?” Pete asked, he knew way too well that he shouldn’t ask about the music thing but he was still worried about his friend’s brother. “Nah, if Gerard doesn’t wanna be found we won’t find him anyways, he has his phone on him so he’ll just text us when he’s in trouble.” So they watched a movie in Gerard’s room while they waited for him.

Gerard wasn’t far from home at all, he was just sitting on a bench at the park across the street. And it was still summer so it wouldn’t get dark until like 9 or 10. Gerard knew his brother wasn’t trying to hurt him, he was just getting overly excited, it happened a lot. But since Mikey was the only one who knew what actually happened  he was scared that he might spill it.

Gerard decided that he had sat there for long enough and decided to just walk around for a bit, but not too long because it was only tuesday. He decided to just walk around the pond, the park was quiet, probably because it was dinner time he guessed. He’d forgotten his phone on the desk in his room so he didn’t know the time for sure.

When he had been walking for about 20 minutes he heard some people behind him but didn’t think too much off it. It was a public park so it could be anyone. The voices became louder, meaning that someone came closer to Gerard. He vaguely recognized the voices but couldn’t place them so he looked over his shoulder. Eye-contact, wrong move. Gerard froze, Bert, Quinn and Jeph were standing right behind him. He looked around to see if he could get help but the only people that were in the park were too far away too see him and it wasn’t like he was actually able to scream.

Gerard sprinted as fast as he could, but the pain in his ribs got even worse when he ran so it didn’t take them long to catch up with him. Quinn knocked him to the ground and Gerard grabbed his ribs to protect them from the impact. He hit his head on the ground, not hard at all but he hoped they would be stupid enough to believe he was knocked out. Gerard closed his eyes and let his body go limp.

“Shit Quinn, you fucking idiot, you killed him!” Jeph was freaking out. “He’s not dead you idiots, he’s breathing” Bert said. “But we gotta hide him because i don’t want anyone to find him here like this.” Gerard felt the three guys pick him up but he didn’t dare opening his eyes. They walked a few steps while carrying Gerard and making a few comments about the way he smelled before Gerard felt himself being dropped. He immediately opened his eyes and hit the water at the same time. He heard them run away.

They fucking dropped him in the pond, really? There’s so many places where you could hide a body and they chose the pond, assholes. At least it wasn’t really deep so Gerard just climbed out. He wasn’t  even covered in water, he was covered head to toe in mud. He walked straight home and ignored all the stares he got on the way.

Before entering the front door he realized that his parents would probably kill him if he came in like this and he really didn’t want to lie to them again anyways so he walked around the house to his little basement window and kept knocking on it until Mikey opened it. “Dude i’m so sorry, are you okay? You left your phone here and i was so wor- What happened to you?!” Gerard just climbed in and stood there in his room, Pete was sitting on the sofa in front of the tv and just watched the brothers. Gerard went to grab a notebook to write in it what had happened but Mikey stopped him “Let’s get you cleaned up first, then you can tell me.” Gerard just gave him a nod and went to his bathroom while Mikey picked out some clean clothes for him.

When Gerard was all clean he walked back in his room to find Pete passed out on the sofa. Mikey walked straight over to his brother to find out what had happened. Gerard wrote down ‘Bert and his little slaves happened, they didn’t hurt me but they dropped me in the pond at the park.’ Mikey just gave his brother a side hug, making sure to avoid his ribs. Mikey apologized about 50 more times before he woke Pete up to tell him that he should probably go home.

Gerard gave Pete a note before he left that said ‘i’m sorry for today, hopefully we can watch a movie together sometime soon.’ Pete told him that he was already looking forward to that and shook Gerard’s hand before leaving.

After that Gerard and Mikey microwaved some leftovers and took them downstairs to watch another movie while eating them and passed out together on the sofa.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that this took so long to post, i actually went to see frnkiero andthe cellabration live a few days ago and then thanksgiving happened and i'm a mess i'm sorry!!


	4. Chapter 4

Gerard woke up by someone violently shaking him, he immediately wrapped his arms around his ribs and opened his eyes to find his brother’s face only a few inches from his own. “Gee wake up for God’s sake!” he said loudly. Gerard pushed Mikey off of him and noticed that he had been sleeping on the sofa in the most uncomfortable possible way ever. “Gerard, now is not the time to be slow!” Mikey looked really stressed so Gerard made his ‘confused’ face and tapped his left wrist twice, asking Mikey what time it was. “it’s ten something Gerard! We’re missing school!” Gerard got up, stretched and grabbed his notebook, wrote a message without using full sentences, handed it to Mikey and went to lay back down on the couch. Mikey read the note out loud “missing school anyways, lemme sleep in” he looked at Gerard, who was just staring at him from the couch. “Okay i guess so, but dad will probably be home by 12 so we have to stay quiet” By the time Mikey had finished that sentence, Gerard had fallen asleep already. Mikey just got in his brother’s bed and tried to get some sleep himself.

 

“WHAT THE HELL TO YOU TWO THINK YOU’RE DOING” both Mikey and Gerard jumped up to the voice of their dad, who looked furious. “Why are you two not at school?” Gerard was waiting for Mikey to answer their dad but his brother was still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “nevermind, just grab your stuff, i’ll drive you to school, don’t wanna see this again, we’re leaving in 5.

 

The brothers rushed to grab their stuff and ran upstairs. Their dad took them to school and not a single word was said on the way there. The boys did the same thing that Gerard had done the day before: they sneaked into the back entrance and waited in the restrooms until the lunch bell rang and then sneaked into the cafeteria, both of them without food. Gerard had to get his brother to stay awake during lunch, and he made Pete promise him that he wouldn’t let Mikey fall asleep during physics.

 

When the bell rang, Mikey almost jumped out of his chair, and Gerard was already on his way to English class.

 

When he got his hands on Frank’s new letter to him he ripped the envelope open right away and started reading.

  
  


_‘Okay Gerard,_

_Even though i’m not going to apologize for my behavior in my last letter, i am going to change my way of talking/writing to you, don’t feel flattered because i’m not doing this because of you, i’m doing this because i really need to get my grades up._

_My teacher told me to tell about ‘my background’ so here we go:_

_My dad left me at the age of 14 when i came out of the closet and my mom has been an alcoholic ever since, she’s the only family member i have left so i can’t go anywhere and she keeps telling me that “Jesus will heal me”._

_So not that you really care but that’s my life!_

_I mean, you could probably tell me about yours or something, i don’t really care though, i just don’t know what else we could write about in these shitty letters…_

_-Frank’_

  
  


Gerard actually felt misunderstood when he read the ‘not that you really care’ line. He DID care and he DID wanna be Frank’s friend, he could make this guy’s life better because the way he described it, it couldn’t get any worse. Gerard got a new piece of paper and wrote his letter.

  
  


_‘Hey Frank,_

_You’re completely wrong about me, why wouldn’t i care about you? Because i don’t know you? Because you were mean to me? Believe me, it takes a lot more than that to stop me from caring._

_I’m sorry about your parents, i wish i could do something about that, tell me if there’s anything i can do in your next letter and i will!_

_Now about my family:_

_My parents are okay i guess, but they just don’t really ‘get’ me if that makes sense. Ever since my Nana died 2 years ago, stuff has been different. I moved schools 3 times in those two years because of bullies and teachers that refused to have me in their classes. The only person who really gets me is my little brother and i’m so thankful for him._

_So, now it’s my turn to let you talk about something…_

_Tell me if you have, or ever had, any pets! And tell me about them!_

_-Gerard’_

__  
  


During dinner both Mikey and Gerard got some death stares from their parents, who were still mad that they ‘forgot’ to go to school today. Even though they both have good grades, their parents weren’t at all easy on them. They had to do the dishes after dinner and go to their own rooms right after.

 

Gerard didn’t eat anything, he was just kind of staring at his food, playing around with his fork and thinking about today’s English class. He hadn’t thought about the fact that he got a letter every single day. But this meant that Frank’s letter must’ve been written today as well. And that meant that his school couldn’t be that far from Gerard’s.

 

Gerard thought about this all night, why did no one else notice this? Probably because no one really cared, he thought.

 

The next day Gerard couldn’t wait to get his letter so he went to Mrs. Allen’s class when the lunch bell rang and “asked” her if he could read his letter already. Luckily she said yes and handed Gerard the letter with his name on it in the crappy handwriting.

 

Gerard gave her his ‘thank you’ nod and happily walked off to the cafeteria. He rushed on his so he could read the letter, no one at Mikey’s table really paid attention to him during lunch anyways. Gerard opened the letter and held it under the table while he read it so no one would notice.

  
  


_'Gerard,_

_I don’t think you get how wrong you are, you shouldn’t care about me._

_Not because you don’t know me, or because i was rude to you, but because no one does. I promise you, pondering over me will not be worth your time._

_Go make friends or go hang out with your brother, i don’t care what you do but stop caring about me because there is nothing you can do about it._

_And i actually am going to give you a piece of advice: It’s normal that your parents don’t get you, that’s why you move out. If you and your parents would get along perfectly, you’d probably live there for the rest of your lives, right? And i sure as hell wouldn’t want that, what about you?_

_Okay now time for pet talk: I used to have a husky named snow, i only knew her for two years because when my dad left, he took her with him. I’d love to get snow back someday but for now that would be impossible since i have no idea where she could be._

_How about you, any pets? Any new things we can write about?_

_-Frank'_

  
  


Gerard knew he’d gotten Frank to open up to him, and it never even took that much. He was way too proud of himself and started reading the letter over again so he could think of a reply when the letter was taken from him. He looked up and saw that Ray and Mikey were now reading it.

 

He just let them, it was useless to try and get it back anyways. He took his whiteboard and a marker out of his backpack because he knew he had to explain once they were done reading.

 

“Okay Gee, explain.” Mikey said when he looked up from Frank’s letter. Gerard gave him the whiteboard with the answer already on it. ‘project for English, have to write letters to other school, im writing to this guy called Frank’ Gerard held out his hand and Mikey gave him his whiteboard and the letter back. “And you’re doing English work during lunch? You must be very excited about this.” Gerard rolled his eyes and started to write his answer down. ‘opportunity to finally make a friend after all these years’ was what it said. Ray read it out loud and questioned Gerard. “You don’t even have friends outside of school?” Mikey quietly told Ray to shut up, but of course, he didn’t.

 

“Okay Gerard, we’ll be your friends!” Ray said while looking at Pete, who quickly nodded. “We’ll hang out together after school if that’s fine with you” Gerard gave the boys a shy smile and nodded, not like he had anything else planned. The bell rang and he almost ran off to English class.

  
  


‘Hey Frank!

I actually won’t stop caring and you know why? Because you told me to stop and i’m the most stubborn person you’ll ever meet.

 

Making friends is harder for me than it seems but i’m hanging out with my brother and his friends today so that could be fun if they don’t ignore me like they always do.

 

And i really like your ‘piece of advice’ by the way. It makes a lot of sense to me.

 

And now the pet talk: I’m really sorry about snow. I hope you’ll find a way to get her back someday. I don’t have any pets because for some reason my dad has a strong hate for animals. My brother has always wanted a dog though but i guess that is never gonna happen.

 

And i don’t know what to write about next so i guess you can figure that out.

 

-Gerard

 

ps. turn this over!’

  
  


Gerard had finished writing his letter in less than 10 minutes so he spent the rest of the period drawing a husky for Frank on the back of his letter, hoping that he would like it.

 

When Gerard walked out off English, Mikey, Ray, and Pete were already waiting for him. They had decided to go to this record store downtown and Gerard just kind of agreed to it. He hadn’t been downtown since they moved here two years ago so he had no idea what record store they were talking about but Mikey assured him that he would love it.

 

And Mikey was right, the place was huge and they had already lost Gerard after a minute. Mikey, Pete, and Ray were done buying stuff after about 20 minutes but Gerard HAD TO roam the whole store and ended up buying over 20 cd’s and vinyl records all together and he even bought a record player since his old one didn’t work properly anymore.

The boys had to help him carry all of his stuff to Ray’s car. And Mikey kept telling Pete to be careful because apparently he’s the biggest klutz ever.

 

When they all got back in the car, Gerard announced via his whiteboard that he was worn out and that he wanted to go home. He hadn’t been around people for this long in a while and he was so tired that he fell asleep in the car.

 

He woke up to Mikey shaking him and telling him that they were home. The boys helped them getting Gerard’s stuff in his basement and left soon after. Mikey still wasn’t allowed to stay the night in the basement so he went back upstairs and left his brother who already fell asleep before he left the room.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YAy another chapter up!  
> I'll probably start on the next CH later today but i'm not sure when that one will be up.  
> Let me know what you think!
> 
> -Nyxx


	5. Chapter 5

Gerard valued sleep so it wasn’t that weird for him to spend his whole weekend in either his bed or the kitchen. Mikey was allowed in his room again and their dad had even bought them an alarm clock for in Gerard’s basement. They played Gerard's records over and over again while playing stupid card games for two whole days. Mikey also kept asking him questions about Frank, so Gerard let him read all of the letters. “sounds like his life sucks pretty bad” Mikey had said. And Gerard agreed, and told Mikey about his plan to make Frank his best friend.

 

When it was finally time for the last period on Monday, Gerard got some bad news. Mrs. Allen had not received Frank’s letter. She just gave Gerard the opportunity to write a fictional story that he had to turn in for a grade. The story turned out really depressing because he had been looking forward to reading Frank’s letter for the whole weekend.

 

Gerard didn’t get any letters for the rest of the week and he started to worry about Frank. Mrs. Allen said that he was probably sick but Gerard just felt like something was up. And he really didn’t want to write another story. Luckily Bert and his little slaves had left him alone this week.

 

Mikey knew that Gerard hadn’t received any letters this week so he just tried to keep his brother busy by more stupid games.

 

Next Monday during gym, Gerard was hanging out with Pete and this guy called Brendon who knew sign language because his father was deaf. He taught Gerard some small things like ways that he could introduce himself and how to spell his name and he even offered to teach him more during lunch and Gerard happily said yes to that. If Mikey learned this with him, he wouldn’t have to write stuff anymore and that would just be really nice for both of them.

 

Before gym class was over, Gerard’s name was called over the intercom. And he was asked to come to the front desk to pick something up that, apparently, was his.

 

Gerard got a hall pass and ran to the front desk, hoping that no one would see him in his gym clothes. He showed the lady at the desk his school ID to confirm that he actually was Gerard. And she handed him an envelope with Gerard’s name on it in that oh so familiar, crappy handwriting.

 

Gerard thanked the lady at the front desk and ran off while hiding the letter for anyone who could possibly see it. When he reached the locker room, he put it all the way at the bottom of his backpack and went back to learn some more sign language in the last 20 minutes of gym class.

 

Gerard decided that he wouldn’t show Mrs. Allen the letter. He would open it when he was alone, or with Mikey but that’s pretty much the same, in his room. He just wrote a slightly less depressing story and ran to Mikey’s physics class when the bell rang.

 

Of course today was the day that Mikey was being slow and taking his time so when he finally walked out, Gerard grabbed his arm and forced Mikey to run all the way home with him. Both of them ran straight down the stairs to Gerard’s basement. Gerard, out of excitement and Mikey out of curiosity. When Gerard pulled out the envelope Mikey gasped. “Finally? How did Mrs. Allen allow you to take that home?” Gerard scribbled on his whiteboard. ‘She doesn’t know, i got it at the front desk, don’t know how he got my last name though.’ Mikey nodded at it “come on! Open it!!”

 

Gerard turned away from Mikey so he could read the letter for himself first.

 

 

_‘Hey Gerard,  
_

 

_I’m sorry for the late reply i guess. But something has happened last week and i couldn’t go to school._

 

_My dad moved back and is living on the same block as my mom. My mom got a call because he’s trying to get me to move schools but of course she doesn’t care so she agreed. I can’t live with a man like my father so i just took some money and ran._

 

_I’m currently staying in a motel close to my school and i wrote the address of it and my room number on the back. I found your school because i saw the address on a sticky note on my teacher’s desk. Probably for the person who was gonna drop the letters_ _off. I just copied it and sent the letter to your school so i hope it’ll arrive._

 

_I’m sorry for this whole story but you said you cared and it’s not like i can share it with anyone else right now._

 

_I’m sorry for all the rude things I've said, please keep writing?_

 

_-Frank’_

 

 

Gerard was honestly shocked and kind of hoped that Frank really was just another bully who was messing with his head. But he just knew that this wasn’t fake for some reason.

“So what are you gonna do?” Mikey asked Gerard when he had read the letter as well. Gerard honestly didn’t know. Of course he was gonna write back, but he had to do more than that.

 

Writing back was the best thing he could do now.

 

_‘Hey Frank,_

 

_I’m so sorry about everything that happened, and i do care._

 

_I’ll keep writing letters to you and i accept your apology._

 

_I don’t recognize the address or the name of your motel but i hope you’re doing okay now._

 

_My brother and i found some money that might help you get some food and stuff so that’s all in the envelope as well._

 

_-Gerard’_

 

 

Gerard wrote his address on the envelope and stuffed the 200$ in it, he wasn’t gonna use it anyways and Frank needed it more than he did. He drove to the post office right after he closed the envelope and hoped to get a response soon. He knew that it was going to take longer now that they weren’t writing through their schools anymore. He made Mikey promise him that he wouldn’t tell anyone.  

 

That night he was drawing again, well, sketching. Something he hadn’t done in a long time. He drew a dark, ugly, worn out, cheap-looking motel room with a silhouette of a boy sitting on the bed. That was Frank. But Gerard of course didn’t know what he looked like so he was just a shadow for now.

 

The days went by really slowly as Gerard waited for Frank’s letter. On Friday when both Pete and Ray came over to watch movies, their mom came in without knocking. Everyone turned their heads and Mikey paused the movie with an overly dramatic sigh.

 

“Gerard, i totally forgot but this came in yesterday. And Michael, i don’t want to hear that kind of noise from you again.”

 

She handed Gerard the letter and left. Mikey was so focused on the letter that he had forgotten to unpause the movie and that caused Pete and Ray to notice that something was up.

 

“What’s up with the letter?” Ray asked them. Gerard rolled his eyes and grabbed his whiteboard off of the floor. ‘tell them’ It said when he handed it to Mikey. These guys were at their house almost everyday, it would’ve been really hard to hide it from them anyways.

 

When Mikey was done telling them, and they were done reading the letters they couldn’t wait for Gerard to open the next letter. Mikey told them to let Gerard read it first so they just continued watching the movie while Gerard read the letter.

 

_‘Hey G,_

 

_I don’t have a lot of time, i’m sorry. My dad found the place i was staying at the guy at the motel told him because i was underage. I’m just kind of roaming the streets right now and trying to find a place to sleep._

 

_Thank you so much for the money by the way, it’s coming in really handy. I’ll pay you back someday, promise. Send your next letter to 413 Washington Ave Belleville, NJ 07109. I checked in so they know your letter will be coming soon and i’ll be checking everyday until get it._

 

_Thank you for keeping up with all of this drama and thanks again to you and your brother (who’s name you never mentioned), for the money._

 

_-Frank’_

 

 

Gerard froze when he read the address. Frank was about a 30 miles away from him. He could probably drive there in 45 minutes. But then Frank wouldn’t be there. He handed Mikey the letter and let the boys read it as well. While they were reading it he wrote ‘what should i do?’. He held the whiteboard up when they were done reading the letter.

 

“i’d say we’d sneak him in as soon as possible.” Mikey answered. Gerard erased the whiteboard and wrote ‘how??’. “Just write this: ‘come to this address as fast as possible, you can use the money for a taxi. Be there at midnight, we’ll come and sneak you in’ something along those lines. But make sure that he doesn’t come to our address but somewhere on the next block so that he doesn’t get spotted. We’ll all go out and get him. Guys, this will be a weekend of sleepovers and planning.”

 

Gerard agreed that that was probably the best thing for Frank. And their parents couldn’t know about this. He rushed his letter and they all got in the car and took it to the post office.

 

 

_‘Frank,_

 

_We found a way. Come to the address on the sticky note in the envelope, it's about a 45 minute drive. Use the leftover money for a taxi. Be here at midnight on the night of sunday/monday. Me, my brother and my friends will sneak you into my basement, my parents rarely come down there but we’re looking for a way to get them to stay out of there._

 

_Know that the address we gave you isn’t ours, it’s one block down but we didn’t want you to get spotted so that’s why._

 

_See you at midnight!_

 

_-Gerard_

 

_ps. the address was written by my brother, Mikey. So, i’m sorry for the handwriting…’_

 

 

After they dropped off the letter, they got some pizza and started planning for Saturday and Sunday. “you should ask your mom if you could get a lock on your door, with a key and everything.” Pete told Gerard. “Mom would totally say yes to that.” Mikey said “Gerard is turning 18 next year, he deserves some privacy.” Mikey gave him a wink and Gerard just looked at him in disgust.

 

“you also have a lot of hiding spots in case your parents do come down: Your closet is huge and there’s room for all of us under your bed so that wouldn’t be a problem.” Ray informed them.

 

They were gonna make this work.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one took a while and i'm so sorry!! I have this huge essay coming up for AP Lit and i've been focusing on that because it's due Friday!  
> Oh well, enjoy this for now. I'm starting on chapter 6 right after i post this.
> 
> -Nyxx


	6. Chapter 6

“you want a lock? Gerard, you’re only 17 i’m sure you can live without a lock until you move out.” Gerard shook his head and wrote on the whiteboard: ‘I just want people to start knocking before they come on, that’s it. It’s not to lock people out or anything.’ He let his parents read it.  
  


This is what had been going on all saturday morning. Gerard begging for the lock, Mikey helping him, and Pete and Ray eating their breakfast in silence. “Okay son, if you give me all the reasons why you NEED a lock on your door, your mom and i will talk about it.” Gerard reached in his pocket and pulled out a long list, the boys had put this together the night before and he had hoped that he didn’t need it, but this was important for him. He gave the list to his parents and went to do the dishes along with Mikey. The other boys joined them and they chatted for a bit. You could hear Mikey’s voice shaking, he was way too nervous for all of this. Even though most of it was his idea.  
  


When they all got back down to the basement they decided that they should probably clean it up if someone was gonna stay and live here. Gerard folded all the clothes that he had lazily thrown in his closet. Mikey did the bathroom and Ray and Pete picked everything off the floor.  
  


While they were doing this there was a knock on the basement door. An actual knock, someone decided to knock and not just chime in. “Come in” Mikey called from the bathroom after a good five seconds. He was probably just as surprised as Gerard was. Their dad came in and sat the boys down. “First of all” he started “Are you guys actually cleaning up Gerard’s room?” everyone just looked confused while nodding. “odd” Their dad said, as if deep in thought. “Okay boys, we decided that you can have a lock on the door but there will be a catch. You’re going to make at least 3 keys.” Gerard wrote ‘why?’ on the whiteboard. “because that way you’ll have one, Mikey will get one, and me and your mom will get one. We won’t use it unless it’s an emergency though.” Gerard was okay with that and gave his dad a thank-you-hug.  
  


When the boys finished cleaning up they left to go get the lock and keys. There was this special store downtown that could make them within an hour so that’s where they went. Mikey did the talking part, as usual and told the guy what kind of lock they needed and then told him that they needed 3 keys. But before he finished his sentence Gerard held up 4 fingers. “Make that 4 keys” Mikey told the man, not fully getting why Gerard needed an extra one because Frank wasn’t gonna get out of there anyways. The guy told them to come back in an hour and thirty minutes so they were gonna do some major grocery shopping for shampoo, snacks and drinks that they would hide in the basement.  
  


The shopping trip  took about an hour so they were back early. Luckily the guy was done with everything already so Gerard just paid and they went back home. They got all their groceries to the basement without there parents noticing for some magical reason and Gerard hid the fourth key in his dresser before he went up to his dad to show him the lock and the three remaining keys he got. “Okay that looks like a good quality lock, Gerard.” Gerard smiled proudly. “I really gotta finish answering these emails and don’t forget that your mom and i are going to a play tonight and that we’ll be home late. I’ll fix your door tomorrow if that’s okay.” Gerard happily nodded at him and left the lock and keys with his dad so he could take a better look at it later.  
  


Gerard’s and Mikey’s parents left before dinner so the boys just had some chips and dip that was meant as a snack for later, for dinner. No one was really hungry though. At about 7, twenty minutes after their parents left. The doorbell rang. “Ugh dad probably forgot something again” Mikey said.  
  


As always, the brothers did a quick game of rock, paper, scissors. The loser would have to walk upstairs and open the door. Gerard chose rock but Mikey chose paper. Gerard rolled his eyes before running upstairs and opening the door.  
  


But it wasn’t his dad at the other side of the door. It was a boy, and Gerard knew exactly who he was. This was Frank. He was soaking wet from standing in the rain and had just a backpack with him. But this was definitely him, it couldn’t have been anyone else really. And at this moment Gerard was thankful for the fact that he was a mute because this guy is pretty and he would’ve definitely let that slip. He wasn’t movie-star-pretty, more like boy-next-door-with-a-punk-vibe pretty.  
  


“Gerard?” He asked. Gerard slowly nodded his head. Not breaking eye contact. “So, are you gonna let me in or…?” Gerard noticed that he had been standing in the door opening for way too long. He stepped aside and let Frank in. Frank took his shoes off but his socks were soaking wet as well so it didn’t really matter.  
  


“Gerard, are you okay up there?” Mikey shouted at him from downstairs. That was a really stupid thing to ask, it wasn’t as if he was going to answer. Mikey probably realized that because a moment after that they could hear footsteps running upstairs. Mikey froze when he saw the guys. “You are not who i think you are, are you?” he asked Frank. “I’m Frank” Frank responded. He was shivering because even though it was summer, it was pretty damn cold. “Hey Frank, i’m Mikey, the basement is this way.” He motioned for Frank to follow him and Frank immediately told him. “Gerard hasn’t said a word to me since i got here, should i be worried?” Mikey stopped before going downstairs. He looked at Gerard who nodded at him. “Not really, Gerard is a mute. That means he doesn’t talk, not because he doesn’t want to but because there’s just no sound coming out. Just treat him like you would treat anyone else though, he just talks in his own way.” Even though Frank didn’t really know what that meant he just said “okay” and gave Gerard a smile.  
When they got downstairs, the other boys had already predicted that it was Frank.

 

Gerard went straight to his closet and pulled out a hoodie, some pajama pants and some socks. He got his whiteboard and wrote, ‘take a shower and change, after that we can talk’ He pushed the clothes in Frank’s hands and showed him the whiteboard. “Okay, thanks, i guess” Gerard gave him a smile and pointed to the bathroom.  
  


“That was awkward” Pete mentioned. Gerard agreed. “Gerard thinks he’s pretty though.” Ray said. Gerard gave him a confused look. “Because you look at him like he’s the coolest thing you’ve ever seen and not to mention that your first instinct when he came down here was to make him take a shower.” Gerard rolled his eyes, even though Ray was right. ‘i just feel responsible now, i guess’ Gerard wrote down. “Sure, Gerard” Ray told him.  
“Maybe we should do some clothes shopping for Frank tomorrow” Mikey offered. “He probably doesn’t have much if anything and we gotta get him out of here when dad puts the lock in the door.” The boys agreed and Gerard decided that he would pay. It was the same thing to him as giving his money to charity.

 

When Frank came walking out of the bathroom, the first thing they noticed was that Gerard’s clothes were way too big on him. He joined the circle the boys were sitting in and Mikey went upstairs to make some hot chocolate for everyone and Gerard got some blankets and gave everyone one. They sat on the floor in a circle and waited and Frank started telling what had happened.

 

“So i figured that you all probably read the letters?” everyone nodded “Okay i’ll just fill you guys in. So i actually took a whole suitcase with me when i left. And when i was at the motel i went and got some dinner and then when i got back i opened the door and my dad was standing there so i ran. I’m way faster than him so i ran a few blocks until i was sure that he wasn’t following me anymore. I asked for the closest post office so i could let Gerard know that i wasn’t at the motel anymore i wrote and posted the letter as fast as possible because it was getting dark and i needed a place to stay at. Didn’t take me long to find a place though, i just went to the train station, places like that are open 24/7 so that seemed like the safest place.”

 

He took a long sip from his hot chocolate before he continued: “Then the next day… Today? Whoa today has been a long day… anyways, so this morning i went out to get breakfast and then i went to the post office around maybe 4 in the afternoon and i got your letter. I just kind of walked around the streets to kill some time and i found this small park. So small it didn’t even have a playground. I decided to take a nap on a park bench since there was literally no one there for some reason. It had probably been an hour until i was shoved off the bench by my dad. He started kicking me and punching me for running away. I told him that he could never be a real father to me because of all of this and so i ran again until i couldn’t see him anymore. That’s when i just knocked on someone’s door and asked them if they could call a taxi for me since i don’t have a phone. I just went to this address because i didn’t want to be chased anymore. I wanted to wait until it was dark and then knock on the basement door but when i saw your parents leaving i just went up to the front door and that’s all i guess.”

 

“That’s a lot, Frank.” Mikey told him. “You must be hungry and tired.” Frank answered right away. “Tired, not so much but if you’re offering me food i won’t pass that up”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to write, got injured today during gym class and can't move my right (and dominant) hand so that sucks.  
> Oh well, i'll start chapter 7 as soon as possible, maybe tomorrow after my doctor's appointment since my hand might be broken.
> 
> So what do you guys think of Frank coming in early?
> 
> -Nyxx


	7. Chapter 7

Mikey had ordered a pizza for Frank before he joined Ray and Pete on the sofa to watch a horror movie from Gerards huge collection. Frank had mentioned that he wasn’t the biggest fan of horror movies so Gerard stayed with him on the floor.  
  
“Did you draw all of these?” Frank asked, pointing to a few pieces of sketchbook-paper that hung on the wall next to Gerard’s bed. Gerard proudly nodded.  
  
“That is amazing!”  
  
Gerard slightly blushed but managed to hide it behind his hair.  
  
‘Do you draw?’ He wrote on his whiteboard before giving it to Frank.  
  
“I do, not as good as all of this though. I draw small doodles of ghosts most of the time.”  
  
Gerard got up to get some pencils and sketch paper and put it on the floor in front of Frank.  
  
‘Show me.’ He wrote on one of the pieces of paper.  
  
“Are you sure? I’m nowhere near as good as you are.”  
Gerard frowned at this and got another piece of paper.  
  
‘When it comes to art, you can’t be better or worse than someone else. It’s art. It’s not even supposed to be good most of the time’ He handed it to Frank, who read the whole thing before he responded with “I suppose”.  
  
He pulled up his sleeves so that his hands were visible and the first thing that Gerard noticed where his tattoos. Both of his hands and all of his fingers were covered in tattoos. This guy was 16 and his hands were covered in tattoos. Gerard looked up at him and caught his eye contact before pointing to Frank’s hands.  
  
“The tattoos? Yeah, i started when i was fourteen and i guess i’m addicted now. Better than drugs though.”  
  
Gerard grabbed his whiteboard and wrote down ‘there’s more than just your hands?’  
  
Frank let out a small -and insanely cute- laugh and pulled his sleeves up as far as they would let him. His arms were covered in tattoos. Gerard wanted to touch them, trace them with his fingers. But, you know, that would be kind of weird since they’re both guys and they just met and there’s other people in the room so.  
  
While Frank was doodling his little ghosts, Gerard was building up courage to ask Frank if he could draw his tattoos. Just drawing people wasn’t that hard for Gerard anymore, but people with tattoos… He never drew anyone with tattoos.  
  
Gerard took a deep breath and reached for his whiteboard that had ended up somewhere across the room while they we’re drawing but just as he was about to reach it, the doorbell rang again. It scared him so bad that he missed his whiteboard and fell face-first on the floor. Mikey already ran upstairs to actually get the pizza and Frank was staring in horror at Gerard, who was now just sitting there, staring at the floor, with a bloody nose.  
  
Gerard honestly did not even care about the blood gushing out of his nose, he had already embarrassed himself enough, he’d probably make it worse if he did anything. And even worse, he could hear Frank getting up and walking away, there goes his only chance for a friend. He felt a tear streaming down his cheek and he was just thankful for the fact that his hair was long enough to cover that up.  
  
He heard Mikey come downstairs, and before he could walk over to Gerard, he heard Frank’s voice. “go watch the movie, i got it, thanks for the pizza by the way”. Gerard heard footsteps coming closer and he just turned his head the other way to hide it. That’s when he noticed the blood on the floor, it was quite a lot but he was not going to let anyone know that he was slightly freaked out so he just closed his eyes.  
  
Gerard felt a hand on his shoulder, but he refused to look up. Why was he always so easy to break? “Gerard, i need you to look up” he said quietly. Gerard did not respond. “Gerard, please, let’s get rid of all this blood.” Frank sat down in front of him. “Fine” Frank said to him, trying to sound nonchalant, “I won’t move until you let me help you.”  
  
Gerard did not move for a good five minutes until he heard Frank whisper “please?”. Gerard shivered and more tears started to roll down his face. He wanted to ask Frank why, but of course he couldn’t so he just slightly lifted his head until he could see Frank through his hair. “There you go” Frank whispered. Gerard wanted to let him know that wanted Frank to keep whispering so that the boys on the sofa wouldn’t notice how miserable he really was right now. But he trusted Frank and for some stupid reason he knew that Frank would be as quiet as possible. Gerard lifted his head so that Frank could help him, but he refused to look the younger boy in the eyes.  
  
Frank moved his hair and Gerard noticed that he had grabbed a tissue box and way too many wet towels. Frank totally ignored the tears, that were clearly visible at this point, and cleaned up Gerards hands, neck and face, while Gerard held a tissue to his nose and slightly tilted his head back to stop the bleeding.  
  
When the bleeding had stopped, Gerard put his bloody tissue on the floor next to him. He was still trying his best to stare at the floor instead of at Frank. “Gerard?” Frank whispered when he finished cleaning Gerard’s face. Gerard looked him in the eyes for barely a second before he looked down at the floor again. “Can you please tell me what’s wrong?”  
  
And that’s when Gerard broke out in tears, he covered his face in his hands and his shoulders started shaking like crazy. Frank actually started panicking now. Of course Gerard did not want to be seen like this by the others so Frank's first instinct was to try to calm his new friend down. He sat down next to Gerard, against the wall, and he started to rub circles on his back. His mom used to do this to him before she turned into the mental woman that she is now.  
  
After maybe 30 minutes Gerard had finally calmed down, he knew that he would not be able to write right now, his hands were still shaking too much. So he just looked up at Frank and tried to say ‘sorry’ even though no sound came out.  
Frank knew what he tried to say and whispered. “Listen, i honestly have no idea what’s going on, but i’m sure that non of it is your fault.” Gerard looked up at Frank in confusion, tears still streaming down his face. He was a failure. He wanted to impress this guy and the only thing he did was hurt himself and cry in front of him. He looked away from Frank in embarrassment. Frank reached to get the paper and pencils they were previously using for their doodles and he gave a piece of paper and a pencil to Gerard. “tell me why please?” Gerard nodded and just started to write. It’s not like he had anything else to lose.  
  
He gave it to Frank when he was done and completely turned around so that he didn’t have to see his reaction. _‘What happened- i guess i was kind of trying to impress you with my drawing skills and then i wanted to ask if i could draw your tattoos and i got scared by the doorbell and fell and i was just trying to make a friend and i ended up bleeding and crying in front of you and i’m just so sorry.’_  
  
Frank read it twice and then put his hand on Gerard’s shoulder to turn him around. “If you’re trying to tell me that you’re an idiot, then that makes two of us. And i don’t understand your ‘trying to make a friend’ comment because i thought we already were friends.”  
  
Gerard looked down again, but this time not out of embarrassment, well, kind of, he was actually blushing like crazy. That’s when Frank pulled him in a hug and he’d deny it if you’d ask him but Gerard was smiling the whole time. Gerard was actually the one who broke the hug because he realized that Frank still did not eat anything.  
  
Gerard got up and got the pizza box off the coffee table and put it in front of Frank. Frank had barely said thank you before he started on his first slice. About halfway through he asked Gerard if he wanted a piece as well. Gerard declined because he usually never ate after 8 and Frank still seemed very hungry.  
  
The movie that the others were watching ended as Frank started on his last slice. It was time to talk about tomorrows plans. They were gonna get some clothes and other basic stuff that Frank needed to live. They had to get Frank out of the house without their parents noticing and that was probably the hardest part. The boys decided that they would all just go to bed and set the alarm for 8 in the morning, an hour before they usually woke up so that they had a full hour to get ready. They would take their breakfast downstairs and if someone came downstairs they would hide someone with Frank in the bathroom so that their parents wouldn’t question it. They were planning on just distracting their parents so they could get Frank to go out through the front door and if that didn’t work there was always the small basement window.  
  
There were two mattresses on the floor, a one person one and a two person one. And both of them had been claimed by Mikey, Pete and Ray. “You can have the sofa Frank.” Mikey said while handing him two blankets. “Thank you Mikey!” Frank said happily, this was probably the most comfortable thing he slept on since he left his house, including the motel’s bed. Gerard smiled at his new friend before he turned off the lights and got in his own bed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry that i kept you guys waiting for so long!!  
> It's currently 2:30 and i finally finished chapter 7.
> 
> I'm sorry if i made any typos or grammar mistakes, i'm just really tired and i wanted to put this online for you guys. I'm sorry for being late :(
> 
> -Nyxx
> 
> ps. tell me if you find any mistakes so i can fix them as soon as possible please?


	8. Chapter 8

Frank could see the alarm clock on Gerard’s nightstand from here, it was 3:46 and he was still awake. He was not even a little tired if he was honest. He just stared at the dark ceiling, trying to get tired, but nothing happened. Around 4:06, Frank heard something upstairs, voices, voices and footsteps. He quietly went over to Gerard’s bed and shook him until he woke up. 

Gerard turned on the little light on his nightstand and looked at Frank in confusion. Frank pointed to the basement door and Gerard understood what Frank was talking about. He reached for his whiteboard and markers and wrote. ‘Parents just got home, probably drunk, very loud, don’t worry’. Frank read it and immediately felt relieved, until, not even a second later, he heard the footsteps coming downstairs. He looked at Gerard wide eyed and Gerard pointed to the bathroom. Frank ran for the bathroom and just closed the door without locking it and without turning the light on. 

The basement door swung open and the lights were turned on. Gerard and Mikey’s dad was standing in the door opening. “Hellow boyyss” He said way too loud. The boys on the floor had woken up and they just mumbled some response that no one could understand anyways. “Why are you here dad? It’s the middle of the night” Mikey said, while hiding his head in his pillow. “Your mom just locked the bathroom upstairs in front of my face so i thought i could just use this one?” Their dad said. Gerard already wrote down his response before his dad was done finishing that sentence and he gave his whiteboard to his dead who read it out loud, way too loud. “‘You cannot use the bathroom, i need it now.’ That’s not very nice Gerard!” He called after his son who was now walking over to the bathroom and turned the light on to find Frank asleep on the floor. He smiled and locked the door in case his dad came in anyways. But he could hear Mikey say that their dad could use his bathroom instead so he had probably left. 

There was a knock on the bathroom door. “you guys can come out now, he left” is what Mikey said. Gerard was just very happy that his brother did not make any comments about him liking Frank because he was starting to think he did and Mikey could pretty much read his mind when it came to things like this. Gerard quietly opened the door, trying not to wake Frank up. Mikey was standing outside and Gerard held his finger to his lips, trying to tell Mikey to be quiet. Gerard walked over to get a piece of paper and a pencil because he couldn’t find his whiteboard. He did his thing and handed the paper to Mikey. ‘He probably didn’t sleep all night so can you guys carry him over to my bed, i’ll sleep on the couch tonight.’ Mikey gave him a nod and told Pete and Ray to get up. Gerard was no use when it came to stuff like this, he was not strong or anything so he just watched as the others carried Frank to Gerard’s bed. He did not wake up through the entire thing. Gerard laid down on the couch and he fell asleep before the lights were turned off.

The next morning all the boys were woken up by the alarm on Mikey’s phone. When Frank woke up he was just very confused so he was the first one to speak up. “How did i get here?” Mikey and Pete explained it to him while Gerard jumped in the shower and Ray ‘needed a few more minutes’. Pete had offered Frank some of the clothes that he brought because they were about the same size, Frank was just really happy that these clothes actually fitted him. They made a shopping list of everything they needed, it included: shoes, shirts, pants, underwear, socks, jackets and hoodies.

The boys decided to go upstairs and get breakfast while Frank went to get a shower. They just took way too much cereal and milk downstairs and a few bowls and spoons. They had breakfast and then it was time to go. 

They threw everything they would need in Gerard’s backpack, mainly just money and a few snacks for later. Gerard looked for his whiteboard but he couldn’t find it anywhere. He kept looking and traced all the steps he took that morning but i didn’t find it. “Gerard you look pathetic, what the hell are you doing?” Gerard took another piece of paper from his desk and just wrote ‘whiteboard???’ 

“You lost it?” Pete asked him. Gerard nodded sadly, this was his only way of communicating when he was out of the house. He could not just take a thousand pieces of paper with him. “We need to go Gerard, we’ll just figure it out i guess.” Mikey told him. Gerard wasn’t at all comfortable with this, but he knew that they really had to go so he gave in and he decided that they should just go.

Mikey went to check if their parents were upstairs so that they could sneak Frank out, and apparently luck -or their parents hangovers- was on their side because they were still asleep. Gerard wrote a note to their parents and left it on the counter

‘Hey, me and the boys went out to the mall, don’t know what time we will be home. Dad, can you put the lock in my door please? Text me when you want us to come home! -G’

The boys shuffled outside to Ray’s car and before they knew it they were on the way to the mall. 

The mall was only a 20 minute drive away but Ray’s car was so small that it seemed like an hour. When they finally arrived, they decided to look for clothes first and at 11am they had pretty much found everything but shoes and jackets. “Frank i think there’s a Vans shop somewhere around that corner if you’re interested in that.” Ray told him. Frank decided that Vans would do because they were comfortable and not way too expensive. They started walking that way until they walked past this small comic book store. “Geraaaaard?” Mikey began, this was his ‘asking for a favor voice’ Gerard just looked at him. “Can we please go in and meet up somewhere with you and Frank for lunch?” Gerard rolled his eyes and gave his little brother a small nod. “Cool! I’ll text you Gee!” Mikey said before disappearing in the store.

Gerard and Frank got to the Vans store and while Frank was looking for the perfect shoes, a worker came up to Gerard to ask if he could help him with anything. This was probably Gerard’s biggest fear. Someone was talking to him, there was no way he could respond and the only person he knew was checking out shoes on the other side of the store. 

Gerard started pointing to Frank and then quickly walked over to him. “Are you okay, you look like you just saw a ghost.” Gerard nodded his head and even though he didn’t believe it for a second, Frank just went with it. He finally settled on simple black high-tops and Gerard paid for them. As they walked out of the store Frank told Gerard that he could wait with buying a jacket since it was still summer. Gerard was okay with this and he decided to text his brother. 

‘Hey Mikes, we’re done. Where did you wanna meet for lunch?’ 

He got a text back in less than 10 seconds.

 

‘We’re at Rosie’s Diner, we’ll wait with ordering until you guys get here.”

Gerard showed the text to Frank and lead the way to the diner where he and Mikey ate at least once a week. 

At the diner they just had lunch in silence until three very specific people came in to ruin it, Gerard was the only one who saw them coming in and he instantly hid in his brother’s lap. “What’s wrong Gee?” Mikey asked him but when he looked around he saw the problem. Bert, Quinn, and Jeph, all three of them were here. In this exact diner. “Guys” Mikey said to the others who seemed very confused. “we gotta go now, no questions” They paid right away without finishing their food and shuffled out of the building. They went back to the mall where all the people were. “Unbelievable that they didn’t even notice us” Mikey said eventually.

“Can you please tell the rest of us what that was about?” Pete asked Mikey. Mikey explained that he saw Bert and his little slaves at the diner and Ray and Pete didn’t need a further explanation. Frank, on the other hand, had no idea what that was all about but Gerard was so freaked out that he clung to his brother’s arm so now might not be the best time to ask. 

“So what are we gonna do now? I suppose we won’t go home yet?” Pete asked the others. “No, we can’t” Mikey said “Our dad is probably still working on the lock.” “Are you saying that we have some time to kill?” Pete said with the widest grin on his face. “ooh i do not like that look” Ray said quietly, but loud enough for everyone to hear. “What do you wanna do Pete?” Mikey asked him. “Let’s go to Velocity 17! It this laser tag place and it’s probably like a 10 minute walk!” Everyone agreed to Pete’s laser tag idea and so they followed him to his mysterious laser tag place.

“You’re way too happy about all of this.” Mikey told him when they entered the building. “Just happy that i can do something fun with my best friend!” Pete finished the sentence with a wink and Mikey instantly looked down. Pete just giggled at his reaction. Ray was walking in front of the two but since Frank and Gerard were behind them they saw this little occurrence. “Something going on between your brother and Pete?” Frank whispered in Gerard’s ear, sending chills down his spine. Gerard shrugged, because he was both very confused and very.. well he actually didn’t know how he currently felt. He was just very confused. 

They checked in and paid for 3 rounds of 15 minutes, Gerard paid for Frank, even though he had told him that he could just wait outside while they played but Gerard completely ignored him and paid for him anyways. The boy behind the counter told them that hey needed at least 8 people to play and apparently the other team was already complete so the next three people that would come in would join their team. The boy was very clumsy and looked really stressed out. Just after he handled all the payments he knocked over his can of coke. His boss, who had been watching him all the time started shouting at him. “Dammit Ross not again! What is wrong with you this is the third time today!” The boy looked terrified. “i--i am sorry s-sir, i will clean it up!” He told the man, who left while mumbling some insults at the boy. Gerard felt sorry for the boy but he wouldn’t be able to ask him if he could help him so he just kind of stared at him while the boy cleaned up. 

After about 30 minutes a boy and a girl walked in and went to check in. The boy at the counter pointed over to the place where Gerard and his friends had been sitting for a while now. The two walked over to them and that's when Gerard recognized the boy. It was Brendon, the boy who had taught him some sign-language in gym class. "Hi Gerard! Hey Pete!" Brendon said, Gerard tried to remember and managed to sign 'Hi Brendon' Brendon just smiled at him. "Whoa, when did you learn that? And who are you?" Gerard just smiled at his brother while Brendon introduced himself. 

"I'm Brendon, i'm in Gerard's and Pete's gym class, my dad is deaf that's why i know sign language and i taught Gerard some easy stuff. This is my friend Lyndsey, don't worry about her she'll be one of the boys, right Lynn?" The girl punched him in the shoulder and glared at him. "Do. Not. Call. Me. Lyndsey! And i can speak for myself as well." Everyone just laughed at her and they started chatting with their new teammates. Turns out that Lynn just moved here and went to their school as well, she was Brendon's neighbor so his parents forced him to hang out with her because they wanted him to get a girlfriend. Which was funny because both Brendon and Lynn were gay. 

"ROSS" The man walked up to the boy behind the counter who looked like he was ready to run. "y-yes sir?" The boy asked him. "How long have these kids been waiting here?!" The man kept coming closer to the boy and everyone was watching them now. "i-i don't know s-sir, 45 m-minutes maybe?" The boy backed away until his back was touching the wall. "He is fuckin' shaking" Brendon said before he got up and went over to the boy and the man. "Excuse me, sir?" He said without really waiting for an answer. "I noticed you getting mad at my friend over here for letting us wait, but we are just waiting for our friend to get here so i guess you just misunderstood." The boy looked at Brendon in shock. "Your friend?" the man said. Brendon just nodded in confusion. "Your friend eh? I guess you can have him then 'cause he's fired!" The man handed the boy his leather messenger bag and took his 'Velocity 17' cap from his head. Brendon motioned for the boy to come over. The man took the boy's place at the counter. 

Brendon took the boy over to the nearest chair and he grabbed another chair so he could sit next to him. "Are you okay?" he asked the boy. The boy broke at this moment and shook his head while tears were streaming down his face. Brendon just hugged the boy while he let it all out, it took a good ten minutes before the boy pulled back. "thank you so much" was the first thing he said. "no need for thanking me, you needed help and i cannot watch people get hurt without doing anything." the boy smiled. "I only worked here so i could support my mom, i'm too young to get a job anywhere else and she needs money 'cause she's sick and..." he broke down in tears again. "listen" Brendon said, "you are gonna join me and my friends over there in a game of laser tag and then we will all figure out a way to get you money, i promise." "why?" the boy asked him. "because i feel like it's part my fault that you just got fired as well." Brendon got up and held his hand out for the boy to help him up, even though no one really needs help with getting up from a chair. 

"Hey everyone this is... wait.... did you ever tell me your name?" "i don't think so." the boy said. "anyways, i'm Ryan, Ryan Ross, i think i saw some of you around at school, anyways, your friend over here, who never introduced himself either, invited me for a game of laser tag." "I'm sorry about that, my name is Brendon. And this is Lynn, Pete, Ray, Frank, Mikey, and Gerard." Everyone said hi to Ryan and they got ready for their first game. Ryan knew how everything worked and he said that the other team was ready to go already. He gave everyone their vests and guns, they were gonna be team RED. He briefly explained how everything worked and then they met team GREEN. Team GREEN consisted of a few boys who looked like they were between 12 and 14 in age. They wished team GREEN good luck and the first game started. The boys ended up winning the first two rounds and losing the last one on purpose. 

"guys wait up" Ray said while everyone was walking out of the Velocity 17 building. "my mom texted me and she wants me home before dinner so i guess i'm not staying the night, i can drive you guys home though." "No you don't have to do that Ray, it will only take more time for you to get home, we'll figure something out." Mikey told him. Ray was actually very happy with that. They all said their goodbyes and he left. "And there's only seven left." Pete said, as if it wasn't obvious. 

Mikey whispered something in Gerard's ear and Gerard nodded at him. "how about you guys all stay the night at ours? we'll all be able to go to school together." Everyone agreed but Ryan had to call his mom to see if she would be okay with taking care of herself for a night. She assured him that she was feeling stable today so he could stay the night as well. 

"First things first" Mikey said. "How did you get here?" he pointed at Ryan. "i took the buss" Mikey nodded. "How did you two get here?" He pointed at Brendon and Lynn. "My car" Lynn answered. "We only have 3 seats in the back but i think we'll be able to make it work" 

They all went over to Lynn's car. Mikey got shotgun because he had to show her the way. "who's going on who's lap?" Pete said "'cause i'm not doing that" Ryan ended up sitting in Brendon's lap and Frank had somehow convinced Gerard to sit in his lap, even though Gerard was like twice as tall as him and his legs were hurting from the way they were folded. He was not complaining though. Sitting on the lap of a pretty guy, who would complain? He could just fall asleep right then and there. And he honestly never wanted to go home.

That was where their only obstacle was, at home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey i had more time to write today so here's chapter 8! It's probably my longest chapter in the story yet! About 3000 words!  
> I'm starting on chapter 9 right away! 
> 
> Tell me what you think about this chapter because i was really excited about it!
> 
> -Nyxx


	9. Chapter 9 (part 1 of 2)

“Okay it’s the 4th house on the right. Yeah, this one. We’re here!” Everyone got out ofthe car and walked up to the front door. It was locked so Mikey rang the bell. Their dad opened the door and saw the seven kids on his front porch. “Michael what’s going on?” “We’re just having some friends over!” Mikey told his dad. He just stepped inside and his friends followed him. His dad did not even try to stop the kids.

“Hey mom!” Mikey said when they walked into the living room. “Gerard and I are having some friends over.” Their mom looked up from the magazine she was reading and widened her eyes. “Some friends?” “Okay, all of our friends, they’re staying the night too.” Mikey said while putting on the biggest smile so his mom wouldn’t say no. “I guess i’ll make lasagna for dinner then.” she said while shaking her head. “Thank’s mom” Mikey said.

“Oh before you all go downstairs, Gerard needs to go see his dad.” Everyone kind of camped out in the kitchen while Gerard went to his dad’s office. He knocked, even though the windows were transparent. “Come on in, son.” His dad said. Gerard opened the door and sat down in one of the chairs. “First off, i guess i took your whiteboard last night, i’m sorry about that.” He gave Gerard his whiteboard back and Gerard took a marker off his desk to write ‘that’s okay, thought i lost it.’ His dad smiled at him and opened one of the little dressers behind him. He took out two keys and Gerard immediately knew that his dad fixed the lock on his door. “There, one for you and one for Michael.” Gerard took the keys from his dad and smiled at him as a thank you.

He walked up to his brother and put the key in his hand. “Did dad get the lock done?” Gerard nodded at him and went downstairs, opening the door with his own key. Everyone just kind of followed him. The mattresses from yesterday were still there so he just walked up to his desk and wrote on his whiteboard. ‘Choose a place to sleep, two people per mattress please.’ Lynn dove on the sofa and shouted “MINE!” before anyone else took action. Pete and Brendon both took over a mattress and Mikey just kind of walked over to Pete’s mattress. “See, something is going on between them” Frank whispered in Gerard’s ear. Gerard just silently laughed at him and rolled his eyes. He actually started to believe Frank. 

Ryan walked over to Brendon’s mattress. “Can i sleep here? because, you know, it’s more comfortable than the floor.” Brendon just laughed at him. “Are you serious?” “Well, i could sleep on the floor you know, if you did not want-” And that’s when Brendon decided that it would be a good idea to grab Ryan’s legs and pull them his way. Ryan ended up falling on top of him. “I guess that’s a yes?” he asked Brendon, who simply answered by telling Ryan to shut up. 

Everyone started to put their stuff all over their ‘beds’ to claim them as theirs. “So…. i guess i’ll sleep on the floor?” Frank asked Gerard. Gerard cleared his whiteboard with his sleeve and wrote ‘are you crazy?’. “Uhhh…. So where do i sleep then?” Gerard rolled his eyes and just pointed to his bed. “Okaaay..? Where will you sleep?” Gerard rolled his eyes again and started writing on his whiteboard ‘bed, it’s a big bed’ Gerard put his backpack on his desk and got Frank’s shopping bags while everyone else was playing video games or talking. Gerard opened the doors on the right side of the closet and put Frank's new clothes in it. ‘Your side’ he wrote and pointed to the right side of the closet. Then he erased ‘your’ and wrote ‘my’ and pointed to the left side. 

“Aaawwh! So cute, you guys look like a married couple!” Brendon screamed across the room. “Way to make things awkward” Lynn said while punching his arm. Brendon started fake crying and everyone just rolled their eyes except for Ryan who just quietly giggled. “See?” Lynn told them “Someone who laughs at you when you’re not funny, that is cute.” She smiled at Ryan who literally turned bright red and he hid his face behind Brendon’s back to make it even better. 

This extremely awkward conversation was ended by the word “SUPPER” being screamed from the top of the stairs. Mikey and Pete immediately started sprinting. The rest just kind of followed. The dinner table had 9 seats today. And two plates were filled already. “Kids!” Their mom screamed, trying to get their attention. Everyone’s heads turned and she started to explain that there were two different lasagnas, a normal one and a vegetarian one. Everyone went for the normal one except for Frank and Pete. No one really cared though everyone was too focused on their own food.

After dinner, Lynn decided that she wanted to help washing the dishes and after she insisted on doing that, Frank thought he should help as well. They had a fun conversation with Gerard and Mikey’ mom on how they met each other and Frank just said that he was at Velocity 17 to have some fun and then met these guys. She believed him, good. After doing the dishes she said thank you to Lynn and Frank and sent them downstairs to have fun. 

When they got downstairs everyone was sitting on the floor in a circle. “Finally!” Mikey said. “Now sit down everyone!” Lynn and Frank joined the circle. “Okay Mikey, now tell us why we’re all sitting here” Everyone looked at Mikey who just happily said “Ghost stories!” Gerard of course, rolled his eyes at his brother and Brendon immediately volunteered. He came up with a lame story about a girl who was home alone with locked doors when she heard footsteps. Your typical ghost story. Then it was Mikey’s turn. He was talking about the basement and how 50 years ago a family lived here and that it was haunted, it wasn’t a good story at all, Mikey was just really good at telling it. While Mikey was building up some suspense in his story there was a knock on the basement door and at least two of them -probably Brendon and Pete- screamed. “Come in!” Mikey said.

Their dad came in, looking as stressed out as ever. He told Mikey and Gerard to come upstairs with him for a few minutes and they just followed him. When they got upstairs, their mom was leaning against the kitchen counter, crying. “Mom are you okay?” Mikey asked her. Gerard went up to his mom and gave her a long hug. “Your auntie Mary just got in a serious car accident, kids.” Their dad said, obviously trying to be the strong one.” Gerard hugged his mom tighter when their dad said this. “Is she going to be okay?” Mikey asked carefully. “We don’t know yet” Their dad answered. “But your mom and I are flying to Florida to find out and to support the family. You guys are staying here though, your nana will be here tomorrow around noon.” Mikey said his goodbyes to his parents and Gerard hugged them both before they left. And they went back downstairs. 

“What was that all about?” Pete asked “You guys spent an eternity up there.” “Our aunt from Florida got in a serious car accident and our parents are going over there right now. Gerard and i never really knew her though, saw her maybe two times.” Gerard nodded. Everyone just went kind of quiet and Mikey announced that he was gonna go upstairs to get something and that he would need Pete’s help. “I wonder what that something is that Mikey’s gonna get.” Frank said with the biggest smirk on his face. Gerard just pushed him and he fell over, which made everyone just laugh harder. Brendon also decided that he wanted to play truth or dare when Pete and Mikey got back. No one really had a choice in disagreeing and no one had better ideas so that was probably what they were gonna do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this one is really short but i'm still working on it so here's the first part!!  
> The second part will be up tonight or tomorrow!
> 
> -Nyxx


	10. Chapter 9 (part 2 of 2)

When the boys came back downstairs they both had two bottles of what looked like vodka in their hands. “Hey Frank! Looks like you were wrong about what Mikey was gonna get.” Brendon said as loud as possible. “What was i gonna get?” Mikey asked him, all innocent. “Oh, you know what i’m talking about.” Brendon answered. Mikey just rolled his eyes and sat down, opening the first bottle. “I’m not drinking” Frank said immediately, he told them about his dad but he also told them that it wasn’t a problem if they’d drink. He just did not want to end up like his dad. Gerard got a sticky note and wrote ‘i won’t drink so that you won’t be the only one’ He gave it to Frank who whispered “you don’t have to do that, go have fun.” Gerard got another sticky note and wrote ‘i don’t need alcohol to have fun’ He gave it to Frank who whispered a “thank you”. in Gerard’s ear, once again sending chills down his back. 

Gerard announced to the rest that he wasn’t drinking and they all just respected his decision. “Okay everyone i’m starting.” Brendon said “Ryan, truth or dare.” Everyone looked at Ryan who just said “truth”. “Okay, are you gonna say anything today or are you just gonna be quietly staring at us?” Ryan kept a straight face while answering. “Are you gonna be a smartass or are you gonna ask me a real question?” Everyone just clapped and cheered and counted it as a valid answer so it was Ryan’s turn now. “Lynn, truth or dare?” He asked her. “truth” she said. “How does it really feel, spending so much time with so many boys.?” She giggled. “Honestly, i haven’t thought about that at all, but now that you mention it. You guys smell gross and have the worst sense of humor.” She didn’t wait for a reaction to her answer and just said. “Frank, what are you gonna choose?” “Dare” he answered, better to do it now than when they got drunk and would make up some seriously humiliating dares. “Let me think” She said. She eventually dared him to do a karaoke version of American Idiot while playing air guitar the whole time. He got really into it and he was rocking it. And honestly, he wasn’t a bad singer at all. 

He sat back down between Gerard and Ryan and asked Pete, who was already drinking way too much. “Truth or dare Pete” “Dare” he said without thinking twice. Frank giggled, Pete had just made the perfect mistake. “Okay.” Frank said, smirking at Pete. “Kiss Mikey” Mikey’s face went bright red. “What? No? This is not my dare! I’m not a part of this?” He said. “Well, looks like you are now!” Lynn said. “Mikey, you’re gonna have to do some stupid dare eventually” Pete said, Mikey glared at Frank and angrily said “Fine i’ll do it”. He turned his head to Pete who grabbed Mikey’s face and just gave him a small peck on the cheek before saying. “I kissed Mikey, lucky for me you weren’t specific enough.” Mikey looked like he just got rid of all the stress in his life but he was secretly quite offended that Pete wouldn’t really kiss him.

“Okay Gerard.” Gerard wrote ‘dare’ on his whiteboard and instantly regretted it. If his brother was really as close to Pete as Frank thought he was then Pete probably knew that Gerard kinda liked Frank. “Okay i got it” Pete said after a good minute. “You have to sit in Frank’s lap until we stop playing stupid games.” Gerard rolled his eyes. ‘that’s it?’ he wrote on his whiteboard. “I guess?” Pete answered. Gerard got up and sat in Frank’s lap, who immediately put his arms around Gerard’s shoulders, making him blush. Gerard would ask him to stop doing stuff like that to him but at times like these he was happy that he couldn’t talk. He grabbed his whiteboard and started writing while Frank was watching over his shoulder. ‘Mikes, truth or dare.’ he held the whiteboard up and Lynn immediately said. “Aww you guys have nicknames for eachother? Gee and Mikes? That’s so cute!” “Shut up” Mikey said, laughing at her. “truth, i don’t want any more dares.” Gerard grabbed Frank’s arm and used his sleeve to erase his whiteboard and wrote ‘What the hell is going on between you and Pete?”

Mikey blushed and looked down. “Honestly, apart from that kiss on the cheek, nothing that i know of.” He avoided looking at Pete and just said “Brendon” Brendon chose dare, of course. “Put on Gerard’s painting clothes and go outside pretending that you’re homeless. You’ll get ten minutes to get as much change as possible.” Brendon seemed to like that dare and Gerard went to get up to get his painting clothes. “NO!” Pete said. Gerard just looked confused. “Do not break your dare or i will find you a worse one, you can only get up if it’s an emergency.” Gerard rolled his eyes again, these people are gonna make him lose his eyes. “Don’t worry Gee, i found them. Mikey said while getting his brother’s clothes from the top shelf.” They were really wide and way too big, even for Gerard. So Brendon could easily put the pants on over his own skinny jeans. He put on the gray hoodie with the holes all over it and ran upstairs. The rest just waited in the basement and set their alarm for 10 minutes. Brendon walked through the door at about 11 minutes and proudly pulled about 2 dollars and a few pennies out of his pocket. He changed out of Gerard’s clothes and put them on the coffee table. 

“Pete” Brendon said. “Uuughhh... truth” Pete answered. “Would you kiss Mikey on the lips, even if it wouldn’t be for a dare?” Pete looked at Mikey, who still refused to look at him and suddenly found his fingernails really interesting. “uhm… i guess i wouldn’t mind kissing him on the lips.” Pete said awkwardly. Mikey started blushing again, even though no one could really see his face, everyone could tell. “Those two need to get together” Frank whispered in Gerard’s ear. Gerard could feel Frank’s breath against his neck and his first instinct was to lean backwards. No one but Frank noticed. Frank moved slightly so he could sit with his back against Gerard’s bed so that he wouldn’t fall backwards. 

“Okay” Pete said, “Brendon, i’m getting revenge on you.” Brendon laughed at him. “Dare. No one can humiliate me, i am never ashamed and i literally have no boundaries so good luck with that.” “Fine” Pete said. “Kiss Ryan. And more specifically, on the lips for at least 20 seconds, not a peck, a real kiss.” Brendon asked Ryan who probably only said he was okay with it because he was a bit tipsy already. Pete had the timer ready but they did not need it. Pete had to break the two apart after a minute. “Okay lovebirds, that’s enough.” he said, grabbing Brendon’s shoulders. “Oh yeah okay, sorry.” Brendon said giggling. Ryan blushed but put his head on Brendon’s shoulder. It had been less than a day but he had developed the biggest crush he’d ever had. 

“Lynn” Brendon said. “Truth” She told him before he could start a sentence. “Okay fine, you have to rank all the guys, and yes that includes me, from least to most attractive.” “Easy” Lynn smiled. “okay least attractive, sorry Pete, then probably you, Brendon, uhh, then Gerard, Frank, Mikey and the hottest is definitely Ryan.” For some reason everyone thought this was hilarious because Brendon was almost a 100% sure that he was gonna be ranked as the hottest. “Okay my turn” Lynn said. “Mikey” Mikey let out a sigh and just said “dare” No one expected that and Frank started begging her with his eyes to get him to kiss Pete. “You gotta look Pete in the eyes and hold his hand, you can stop looking after that but you have to keep holding his hand until the game is over.” Mikey took a deep breath and decided to block everyone out. He looked up and Pete was already looking at him. He grabbed his hand and intertwined their fingers before he looked down again. “Good” Brendon and Frank said at the same time. They both really wanted these two to get together. 

Gerard had somehow fallen asleep during the last two dares, no one, not one noticed it until Mikey asked his older brother truth or dare. Gerards head was resting on Frank’s chest and Frank didn’t even know it. “Let’s wake him up!” Brendon said. He filled one of the empty vodka bottles with water and emptied it above Gerard’s head, soaking not only Gerard but also Frank’s shirt in the process. The fear in Gerard’s eyes was priceless and everyone laughed at him. He wanted to get up to go change but Pete stopped him again. “Not an emergency, you’re not getting up.” Gerard just glared at him. “Okay Gee.” Mikey said “Truth or dare.” Gerard wrote the word ‘Dare’ and put his whiteboard down. “I’m gonna bend the rules” Mikey said. “Since you and Frank are both covered in water, you should take each other's shirts off and get under this blanket.” He threw a blanket at them and Gerard was now just glaring at his brother. He was not gonna back out though. He got his whiteboard and wrote. ‘I can’t get up’ But Pete told him that he could get up if it was for another dare, as long as he sat back down in Frank’s lap after it. 

Gerard got up and helped Frank up. Guessing he was gonna take Frank’s shirt off first. He grabbed the hem and pulled it up. When the shirt was off, the first thing Gerard noticed were the tattoos. Frank had a whole chest piece and his stomach had birds and letters and Gerard just really wanted to draw it. He looked at Frank’s face and realized that Frank probably saw him staring at his tattoos. Frank totally ignored it though and he grabbed the hem of Gerard’s shirt. His fingers lightly touched Gerard’s skin and Gerard felt like he was gonna die. “Okay can you guys stop checking eachother out now so we can continue?” Mikey asked them. “Oh yeah sure” Frank said. He sat back down and Gerard sat in his lap, he avoided leaning back this time, that would be way too awkward to handle. Frank put the blanket over both of them. 

Gerard got his whiteboard and wrote Ryan’s name down. “truth” Ryan told him. Gerard nodded and wrote down. ‘If the dweeb next to you asked you out, what would your answer be?’ He held the whiteboard up and read it out loud. “Okay, honestly, if Frank asked me out i would say no because he’s already taken.” Everyone just laughed at him, “Other side Ryan” Lynn just told him. “Ohhh Brendon, yeah i wouldn’t say no to him.” Ryan just stared at Brendon until Pete cleared his throat. “Oh... right” Ryan said “Let’s play a different game, i don’t like this one.” 

Everyone agreed with Ryan until he came up with his ‘great idea’ “Guys, i wanna play spin the bottle” “Well i don’t ‘cause i don’t wanna kiss anyone in this room” Lynn said. “Yeah, me neither.” Mikey said, still looking down. “Okay, we both know that that’s a lie.” Brendon told him. “I mean, it’s like 3:30 so we should probably sleep, school tomorrow.” Mikey said. Gerard got his whiteboard and wrote. ‘let’s stay home, no one’s here anyways and Nana loves us’ Everyone just kind of agreed with Gerard, and Brendon and Ryan decided that everyone who wasn’t playing spin the bottle would sleep outside. 

They got an empty vodka bottle and emptied the floor. And Mikey asked “Can i stop holding Pete’s hand and can my brother get out of Frank’s lap now?” Brendon stood up and smiled at them. “I was waiting for someone to ask this question. See, Mikey and Pete can stop holding hands because Lynn dared Mikey to hold Pete’s hand until the game was over. And it’s over.” Mikey let go of Pete’s hand, and Pete looked kind of hurt. “But Pete dared Gerard to sit in Frank’s lap until we’d stop playing stupid games, and spin the bottle is definitely a stupid game.” 

Frank let out a sigh, which made Gerard very insecure. He got his whiteboard and wrote. ‘am i too heavy?’. He gave it to Frank who was shocked by his message. “No, why would you think that?” He whispered against Gerard’s neck. ‘That’s it’ Gerard thought ‘I’m done with this guy.’ He wrote ‘2 things’ showed it to Frank and erased it. ‘one- why did you sigh, do you dislike me that bad.’ He showed it to Frank and erased it again. ‘two- stop breathing in my neck, it’s distracting.’ “One” Frank started “I don’t remember sighing so you probably just imagined that.” Gerard rolled his eyes, no way he imagined it. “Two, i’ll try not to be distracting.” Gerard felt Frank’s breath on his neck again. Of course, ‘cause why listen, right? ‘I hate you’ Gerard wrote down. Frank stole his whiteboard and marker and drew a little heart on the whiteboard. 

“I mean, we are about to start but if you guys wanna continue that die-hard flirting you can continue” Brendon said. Gerard hid his face in his hands, kind of ashamed that everyone was watching them. And to make it even worse Frank said. “Don’t worry, we’ll play.” They joined the circle and Brendon started talking. “Okay so i’ll start and whoever it lands on i’ll kiss, we’ll go clockwise so everyone gets to kiss someone!” Brendon spun the bottle, way too hard of course so it took like three minutes to stop. But it eventually stopped on Pete. “Yay i’ll get to kiss my bestie!” “Gross” Pete said, but he did kiss him without further discussion. It was a decent kiss but Pete looked really uncomfortable doing it. “Clockwise…” Brendon said, looking at the clock on the wall. “Your turn again Pete!”

Pete spun the bottle, way slower than Brendon did and it landed on both Frank and Gerard. “Okay what do i do now?” Pete asked Brendon. “Okay Gerard, get off” Brendon said. “You can sit in Frank’s lap again after we finish this game.” Gerard got off Frank but their shoulders were still touching so they could keep sharing the blanket. “Spin again” Brendon told Pete. This time the bottle ended up on Mikey, who was forced to look up now. No one said anything and they just kissed. But Mikey broke the kiss after like three seconds so it wasn’t even a real kiss. He looked back down and spun the bottle without saying a word. “Okay i can’t stand the tension, i’ll put on some music.” Ryan suddenly said. The kid was quiet but everything he said made up for all the bullshit Brendon said. Ryan played the Green Day record that was still in the cd player. 

Mikey’s bottle had stopped on Ryan’s empty spot and when Ryan sat back down everyone was looking at him. “You’re not scared of me, are you?” Ryan said with a smirk. “Pshh, of course not” Mikey said, he leaned in over the bottle and waited for Ryan to close the gap. Weird enough, this was less awkward than kissing with Pete but he did not enjoy this at all so he broke the kiss and just went back to his spot, hoping he wouldn’t have to kiss anyone again. 

“You know what?” Lynn said before spinning the bottle. “I know a game that will be way more fun for all of us and it’s just another cliché game as well! Seven minutes in heaven!” Everyone just kind of looked at her but then Brendon was like. “Would be less awkward because you don’t HAVE to do anything, you’ll just be locked up with someone for seven minutes.” “Brendon…. Literally everyone knows the rules.” Frank told him while shaking his head. “And you know what the best thing is?” Lynn asked the boys. “What?” Brendon asked eagerly. “I came up with this idea so i’m gonna bend the rules and choose the couples that will be locked up together!” 

They asked if they could use Gerard’s bathroom and Lynn decided that Brendon and Ryan would go first. The two went in there, already giggling. “I totally did that to get rid of Brendon for a bit, Lynn said. It was actually really nice to only hear the music for a bit. “Wait” Pete said suddenly. “what?” Lynn asked him. “Not you, Gerard should be sitting in Frank’s lap, we’re not done playing stupid games.” Gerard rolled his eyes and moved so he was sitting in Frank’s lap. He got out his whiteboard and wrote ‘fuck you’ and held it up to Pete. “love you too Gee!” Pete said. Mikey smacked him, “uhm, that’s my nickname for him, come up with your own” “Well i’m sorry for upsetting you mr. grumpy.” Pete said jokingly. That’s when Mikey got up and ran upstairs. Gerard got his whiteboard and wrote. ‘think of a makeup dare ‘cause i’m gonna break this one, i’ll be back’ He got up after showing his whiteboard to Pete and followed his brother. 

Gerard walked upstairs to Mikey’s room and found him curled up on his bed, crying. He hugged his brother like he’d hugged his mother earlier that night. When Mikey had calmed down a bit, Gerard wrote down ‘tell me’. “I know you won’t tell anyone but i need you to pinky promise me that you won’t tell anyone” Gerard nodded and held out his pinky. They didn’t care how childish it was, they still pinky promised and they’d always kept their promises to this day. “Okay” Mikey said, his voice was still shaking. “So, i’ve pretty much liked Pete since we became friends like a year ago, but since school started, stuff has been different. He has been hanging out with me during lunch and even after school and i started to think that he liked me but everytime something is about to happen, he backs out. Like, with the kiss, he backed out and kissed my cheek and then talked himself out of it. And then Ryan and Brendon just met and are probably banging eachother right now!” Gerard started silently laughing at that. He wrote, ‘I think both of you are scared that the other one doesn’t like you’. “Are you sure, Gee?” ‘Pretty sure, do the 7 mins in heaven game and you’ll see, something will happen, trust me’ Mikey just nodded and hugged his brother. Gerard was never wrong about stuff like this. Gerard grabbed his brother’s arm and pulled him off the bed to take him back downstairs. Just before he opened the basement door he turned around. He lifted Mikey’s glasses and used his sleeve to wipe his tears away while Mikey held his whiteboard for him. “Thanks Gee” He whispered just before his brother opened the door. 

“Okay they’re back” Lynn said. “The next couple on my list….. Let me think... Gerard and Frank!” Frank stood up as Mikey sat back down, next to Pete, a little closer than before and he refused to look down. “You okay?” Pete asked him. “Yeah” Mikey said, looking at his crush “I’m sorry about that” “Are you crazy?” Pete answered “It was literally me being rude and mean, you shouldn’t be sorry about storming off.” He hugged Mikey and Mikey couldn’t help but smile. 

“Oh wait” Pete said, before Frank and Gerard could enter the bathroom. “I got Gerard’s makeup dare” They turned around “What is it?” Frank asked. Lynn, Brendon and Pete giggled. “You guys are both gonna sleep in just your boxers and under only one blanket.” “No wait, this is not funny, this basement is freezing cold!” Pete laughed “Yeah why do you think i came up with it?” “I hate you” Frank whispered “And so does Gerard probably” Gerard nodded and glared at Pete. “That’s not everything though” Lynn said “We’re not gonna tell you guys when it’s time to get out and we took all of the clocks out of the bathroom and took your phones. You guys have to stay in there for at least 7 minutes, if you guys come out early, you’ll have to go in for another 7 minutes. Not a dare or anything, just wanted to try it.” Frank was the one to roll his eyes this time. “Come on Gerard” he said. Gerard grabbed his whiteboard off the floor and went to follow him. “No wait” Brendon said. He did some sign language and Gerard knew it meant ‘no whiteboard’ so he just handed his whiteboard over to Brendon, and flipped him off before following Frank into the bathroom.

Frank locked the door behind Gerard and Gerard got another marker out of his back pocket. He went up to the mirror and wrote. ‘Can we share the blanket? Bathroom is even colder’ Frank nodded “Come over here” He sat down on the floor and Gerard sat down next to him, lightly leaning on Frank. Frank turned his head and whispered. “You know we’re supposed to make out right?” Gerard got up and pointed to his neck. He erased the mirror and wrote ‘STOP DOING THAT, ITS DISTRACTING’ in capitals. As he was writing he could see Frank getting up in the mirror. “tell me why it’s distracting” Frank asked him, getting closer. Gerard erased the the mirror again and wrote ‘Distracting me from focusing on what’s important, not gonna tell the whole story but you’ll leave eventually and i can’t do that to myself again’ Gerard saw Frank coming closer in the mirror. “I won’t leave, nowhere else to go. I couldn’t go if i wanted to. And i really don’t want to leave.” Gerard erased the mirror and wrote ‘Promise?’ He turned around to look at Frank now. Frank took the marker out of Gerard’s hand and wrote on the mirror as well. ‘I promise.’ Gerard just hugged him after Frank gave him the marker back. 

“I figured this is your way of saying thank you” Frank said, looking at Gerard but not letting go of now. Gerard nodded. “You don’t have to say thank you though.” Gerard got out his marker but instead of writing on the mirror he wrote on a not yet tattooed spot on Frank’s arm. ‘I really like you’ Frank grabbed the marker out of Gerard’s hand and started writing on Gerard’s chest ‘I really like you more’ He tried giving the marker back but Gerard just got another one out of the dresser under his mirror. They started writing stupid messages on each other until even Gerard was covered in ‘tattoos’. That’s what you get when you can’t use whiteboards. Gerard eventually dropped his marker on the floor and gave Frank another hug. Then the door opened and Brendon was standing there. “Seriously? It’s been over 20 minutes and you guys are still- Wait, i thought i took- why are you guys covered in words?” Gerard hid his face in Frank’s neck and Frank just blamed Brendon for taking the whiteboard away. “

“Gee, you should probably wash that stuff off because it will turn the sheets black and you’ll just give mom another heart attack.” Gerard agreed with his brother and he grabbed Frank’s hand and disappeared in the bathroom again. Gerard locked the door and they could hear Brendon shout “Don’t bang in the bathroom!” and Frank immediately shouted back “It’s not your bathroom!” Gerard smacked Frank in the chest leaving a red mark and immediately regretting it. He got a marker and wrote ‘sorry’ in Frank’s neck, one of the only places where there was still room to write. “Are you kidding me?” Frank said, grabbing both of Gerard’s arms. “That did not hurt, i deserved that, i was being an idiot. Now let’s get this stuff off.” 

Gerard nodded and turned on the shower, probably the easiest and fastest way to get it off. He got two bottles of shower gel and put them by the shower and he waited for it to get warmer. This shower always took way too long to get warm. Frank hugged him from behind and put his head on Gerard’s shoulder while they were waiting. After at least 30 seconds Frank got bored and he decided that he was done waiting. He pushed Gerard who ended up under the freezing cold water and his face showed terror. He stepped out of the shower and hugged Frank who almost squeaked. “That’s c-c-cold” He said. Gerard just looked at him and raised an eyebrow. He felt the water and it was warmer now so he just got in the shower with jeans and socks still on, they were wet now anyways. Frank, however took his pants and socks off before jumping in the shower. When Gerard noticed that Frank’s pants were gone he decided that he could take his off as well. He tried his best not to be seductive but that’s kinda hard when you’re trying to take off your pants while showering with someone else. 

He threw his pants and socks somewhere on the floor in the bathroom and he took the bottles of shower gel and gave one to Frank. He opened his own and started rubbing it on Frank’s arm. He did not have anything in this bathroom at all so they would have to use their hands. Frank started on Gerard’s chest and was surprised how fast it came off. After about 15 minutes they were done but Gerard decided that he had to wash Frank’s hair. He pointed to the shampoo bottle and to Frank’s hair and Frank just said “alright” and let Gerard do his thing. When he was done and ready to get out Frank told him that he wanted to wash Gerard’s hair as well. Gerard didn’t really want to wash his hair because he didn’t like the shiny-ness that his shampoo provided but whatever. When Frank was done washing Gerard’s hair, he wanted to cover both of them in as much soap bubbles as possible. Gerard took the challenge and helped him, but he kept getting distracted by his tattoos. He still couldn’t fully see what the other words on Frank’s stomach said but the one in the middle definitely said ‘and’. Frank kept moving and that only made it harder for Gerard, who was just trying to read it. Finally Frank lifted Gerard’s chin so Gerard looked him in the eyes. “Are you looking at what i think you’re looking at?” He said while grinning. Gerard shook his head and pointed to Frank’s tattoos. “Oooh” Frank said, trying his best to sound disappointed. “It says search and destroy.” He showed his tattoos to Gerard who tried to memorize the details so that he could draw them later. 

“We should probably get out, i’m starting to look like a raisin.” Frank said eventually. Gerard nodded and turned the shower off. They both got a towel and Gerard decided that he would clean up the bathroom tomorrow. 

They both put their towels around their waists and walked out of the bathroom to get some dry boxers for the night. “So did you guys do the dirty or nah?” Brendon asked. “Depends on what ‘dirty’ is to you, because i just washed Gerard’s hair and i can tell you that it was far from clean before that.” Everyone laughed at Frank’s comment and Gerard pretended to look hurt, which he was very bad at. Gerard took a pair of boxers and disappeared into the bathroom to change into them. He didn’t bother putting on more clothes since he had to sleep in boxers anyways. 

He came out of the bathroom and sat down next to his brother, who was resting his head on Pete’s shoulder. He put his hand on his brother’s knee and Mikey just said. “thanks so much Gee” Gerard smiled at him. Frank came back from the bathroom and Pete announced that it was five in the morning and he was tired. Everyone agreed with him but before he went to bed he took three blankets off Gerard’s bed, leaving the thinnest one on. “Not fair” Frank said “Life’s not fair” Pete replied, winking at him. Ryan was already asleep on one of the mattresses and Brendon covered him with one of the blankets from Gerard’s bed. Lynn was already lying on the sofa and Mikey was sitting on his and Pete’s mattress. “Oh Gerard” Brendon said “Before i forget, your whiteboard is on your desk, i don’t want you to lose it again.” Gerard gave him a thumbs up and turned his nightlight on before turning the big light off. Frank was already in Gerard’s bed. Gerard joined him, and waited didn’t turn the nightlight off before Pete found the right mattress. 

After turning off the nightlight, the basement was so dark that he couldn’t see anything. He turned around so he was facing Frank and he reached out to him. Gerard was freezing and he was not gonna let Frank sleep while he was Freezing. “Cold?” Frank whispered. Gerard was literally shivering. “I guess that’s a yes?” Frank grabbed Gerard’s arms and put them around him. He put his own arms around Gerard and started rubbing his back, trying to get him warm. After an hour, both of them were still freezing and awake. “Gee, this is not gonna work” Frank said. “But i have an idea” He got out of the bed and dragged Gerard along. Gerard took small steps, hoping that he wouldn’t fall but they were already at the bathroom.   
Frank closed the door before turning the light off and grabbed the blanket from earlier that he put over the towel rack. He put the blanket around Gerard’s shoulders but still held the ends. Gerard hugged him as a thank you because this was honestly the warmest blanket in the world. “You’re welcome” Frank’s breath hit his neck again, and it sent chills down Gerard’s back. But they weren’t cold chills, they were warm chills. Gerard pulled away and looked at Frank in shock. He was still holding on to Frank because his legs were about to give in. “What’s wrong?” Frank asked, to him it looked like Gerard had just seen a ghost. Gerard pointed to his neck again. “Ah, your neck? I mean, i guess it’s not distracting anymore, right?” Gerard shook his head. “So i guess you wouldn’t mind if” Frank leaned in again “I would do this” He spoke the words so close to Gerard’s neck that he was sure Gerard could feel it. Gerard shook his head again. “Let’s take this a step further” Frank whispered. “He started kissing Gerard’s neck and that’s when Gerard’s legs gave in. Frank ended up sitting on the floor with his back to the wall and with Gerard on his lap again. He didn’t stop kissing Gerard’s neck until Gerard couldn’t contain himself anymore. He turned his head and kissed Frank on the lips. Frank’s hands went into Gerard’s hair and Gerard lost control over his own arms so they went kind of everywhere. This was totally not what both of them had been thinking about all day or anything of course. Frank decided that it had been long enough so he broke the kiss and went back to Gerard’s neck. This time he wasn’t just kissing it though. He was biting and sucking and even licking the skin on Gerard’s neck. And that’s when something happened that no one predicted. Gerard let out a moan. A sound. And he immediately pulled back and covered his mouth. “How?” Frank asked him, he was at least half as shocked as Gerard was. This was the first sound he’d ever heard from Gerard. Gerard tried his best to talk but nothing else was coming out. He was just really confused right now. He got a marker that they left on the floor and wrote. ‘dont tell’ on the mirror before erasing it. Frank nodded and they went back to bed, with the blanket. Gerard was totally going to ask his Nana if she could help him with talking. Because right now, he knew that he could possibly speak again in the future. 

He cuddled up to Frank and made sure both of them were covered by the blankets. “Thank you so much” Frank whispered. “Thanks for giving me a place to stay and thanks for being so nice to me and just thanks for everything.” Gerard hugged him tighter. “I really like you too” Was the last thing Frank told him before they both passed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long, i couldn't stop adding stuff!  
> This part has 5.5K words and is my longest part yet!  
> And it's also the most exciting and my favorite part yet so have fun reading!
> 
> -Nyxx


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